The company is already operating the service in London, Manchester and Leeds – and is set to expand into South Wales, the West Midlands and the M1 Corridor.
” The increasing cost of waste disposal has made a chargeable glass recycling service a more viable option “
– Biffa spokesman
A spokesman for the company has told letsrecycle.com that if these new areas provide as much glass as Biffa's first phase has, the scheme may be expanded even further.
He said: “Following this expansion we now provide coverage to a significant amount of England and Wales. If the service continues to prove as successful as it has done in London, Manchester and Leeds – the opportunities may exist for widening the coverage further still.”
Collections are available to any pub, club, hotel, restaurant or commercial enterprise that produces waste glass bottles within the company's catchment areas.
Glass collected through the service is to go UK bottle manufacturers and the aggregates industry.
History
Biffa's claim that a scheme could go nationwide comes around 18 months after the last national scheme to collect glass, Recycle More Glass, was stopped because of a lack of support from the brewers.
Glass collector Berryman's, which had bought Recycle More Glass from Valpak, said that collections were no longer cost effective and abandoned the scheme (see letsrecycle.com story).
The Biffa spokesman explained: “The increasing cost of waste disposal has made a chargeable glass recycling service a more viable option. Because of the increasing cost of landfill, the economics of recycling glass are now better from a customer's point of view than having it collected as part of their general waste.”
Endorsement
Although the company is yet to take the scheme nationwide, it has received encouragement in doing so from its predecessor.
Brian Head, south east recycling development manager for Berryman, commented to letsrecycle.com that the landfill savings would be able to offset some of the costs that Biffa would face in actually collecting the material.
He said: “It is a very difficult market, but they have a bit more to throw at it and that is an advantage. I think it does need something extra and if a company is also diverting waste from landfill then there is savings for them.
“It certainly makes better sense than a stand alone service,” he added.
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