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Apr19SWR accommodates waste contract with YHA

SWR has won a major waste contract with the UK Youth Hostel Association (YHA). Under the new deal SWR will help the charity organisation improve its environmental performance, while achieving savings estimated at 17% over 3 years.

SWR will provide a complete waste management solution for all waste types at some 154 YHA locations stretching across the UK, from inner city youth hostels, bunkhouses to rural camping barns.

The combined waste from each of the sites amounts to approximately 1,200 tonnes per year and includes a varied mix of glass, cardboard, bottles, cans, paper and plastics. As SWR is able to manage just about any type of waste, collections for other more specialist waste, such as fluorescent tubes, waste electrical and confidential shredding will also be available to YHA. The new waste strategy will boost overall recycling levels from approximately 10 percent to almost 70 percent across all YHA sites.

CEO of SWR, Giles Whiteley, said: “Before SWR became involved YHA had found that they needed a complicated mix of suppliers to meet their requirements.  This is turn made it difficult to maintain a clear picture of environmental performance and made effective relationships with suppliers a near impossibility.

“We worked closely with YHA to gain a good understanding of the current way waste is managed; carrying out a survey across all of the sites we were able to establish the types and quantities of waste produced by each. From here we will roll out a coordinated waste plan for each site as their existing individual waste contracts expire. This will involve installing the most appropriate type and quantity of containers at each site, all of which will be clearly labelled to make it as easy as possible for staff and visitors to separate their waste more effectively.”

SWR will also help YHA with their internal marketing campaign to promote the new waste service to their staff.

Safety, Health, Environment and Quality Assurance (SHEQ) Officer at YHA, Martin Trouse, said: “Due to the extreme geographical spread of our sites, we have, until now, been unable to find a waste company able to provide a cohesive waste service. We were therefore using a number of different waste contractors across the country to deal with the various waste streams at each site. This was proving a time consuming and complicated process to manage, with multiple contracts and invoices to process. We also struggled to achieve any consistency in the service we were receiving, which in turn made it very difficult to achieve any consistency in our recycling performance.

“Now, with SWR on board, all of our waste is handled through one organisation. We have one contract and one monthly invoice. It’s much simpler and easier to manage.”

One Response to “SWR accommodates waste contract with YHA”

SWR Develops New Waste Plan for YHA | SWR - Specialist Waste Recycling Ltd. says:
May 6, 2011 at 2:07 pm

[...] SWR has won a major waste contract with the UK Youth Hostel Association (YHA). Under the new deal SWR will help the charity organisation improve its environmental performance, while achieving savings estimated at 17% over 3 years. Click here to find out more. [...]