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We don’t believe in waste of any kind, not just resources, but also time, energy, ideas or money. Life is short; we don’t want to waste it. Here you can delve deeper into the work with do with our customers by reading our binit blogs.

big binit breakfast #6 : esg

Our 6th Big Binit Breakfast! Join us at The Glorious Art House Cafe and Venue on Thursday 29/02/24 from 8:30 – 10:00 a.m. to discuss environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) and other industry happenings. Entry fee is £1 for customers and £10 for non-customers, all of which will go towards our chosen charity. At our previous breakfasts, we raised donations for Pete’s Dragons, Hospiscare , FORCE Cancer Charity & St Petrock’s (Exeter) Ltd.

Email sara@binituk.com or sign up below

Sign up link: https://share.hsforms.com/1jXPPEoPaSaeP1kEbtLYaqQ34blx

recycling your electrical waste (weee)

Have pesky cables, old phones ☎️monitors, lightbulbs💡 and other bits and pieces to get rid off? 

At Binit, no job is too big or too small. We can provide you with solutions for WEEE that works best for you. Get in touch via calling 01392 247035 or emailing home@binituk.com with your query today.

To learn more about our carbon-neutral WEEE collections with InExeter and Co-Delivery as well as what WEEE items can be recycled, click on the following links: Binit x InExeter & Co-Delivery | WEEE items

where does my recycling go? part one: cardboard

We are always asked: “So, what happens to my recycling then?” It is a fair question to ask. The recycling process is one shrouded in mystery and unless you’re in the industry, you can bet no one will give a straight answer. Or have an answer at all!

I recently got the chance to visit the Exeter Materials Reclamation Facility (MRF) with our apprentice, Jodie. We learned a lot from Matt Hulland, the Resource Recovery Manager for Exeter City Council. In the UK, Exeter is unique as it is one of the few local authorities and run and own their own MRF. In this blog, I will tell you all about cardboard and its recycling process.

If you are a Binit customer in the Exeter area and you source segregate your waste (i.e: have a card bin) you are helping us recycle card in its purest form. It is important to keep waste streams as clean as possible so not to lose the value of the material. This way it can be circulated back into the economy. If you put your card in our mixed recycling bins, do not fear, these are also being recycled at a high quality. I will also tell you exactly how it is being separated from other recyclables.

For someone who is interested in the waste industry, the Exeter MRF is an exciting place to be. This was my first time at a MRF. At university I did modules based on circularity but seeing how it all works in real life has brought a lot more insight. In this blog I’ll separate the card streams into two categories.

A: Card from card bin | B: Card from mixed recycling bin

Phase 1: Collection and tipping

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Main tipping hall.

A: If you have a card bin, the process is simple. The card will be tipped straight into a vehicle by a member of our crew → brought to the MRF → baled.

B: If the card is in our mixed recycling bin, the card goes on a bit of a journey. Your mixed recycling gets tipped and compressed into the lorry → brought to the MRF → tipped at the main tipping hall.

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Pre-sort cabin.

Phase 2: The Separation Process

B: Card from the mixed recycling is fed through a machine by a digger → sent to the Pre-sort Cabin where materials are segregated by hand and quality controlled → cardboard is taken off at this stage.

There may be some remaining cardboard after the Pre-sort Cabin in which it will be taken off at the next two cabins: 1) where the plastics and cans are sorted and 2) where the paper is sorted. All the cardboard will then be baled.

Phase 3: What happens next?

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Baled cardboard.

A & B: The quality controlled baled cardboard is stacked and ready to be circulated for sale in the market. Around three to four million tonnes of card is processed in the UK per year. This month the cardboard from Exeter will be sent locally in the UK to Kent.

If you enjoyed this blog, next month I will be posting about the plastic stream!

Sara Azizi

Pink Moon. How hospitality deals with waste

Many businesses that suffer from commercial waste problems are in hospitality. This often fast-paced industry is built around enticing customers with a cool atmosphere, friendly and hard-working staff who meet your customer’s needs, and swanky themes that distinguish you from the competition. However, business owners often need to weigh their options. Space may be at a premium and your location might be easy to walk past but not to drive to. Most importantly though, food and drink establishments need to be kept clean! Therein lies the problem with waste. With so much focus on the image of an establishment, how do you deal with waste?

This was just one of the problems that Binit tackled with Pink Moon, alongside hundreds of other businesses in hospitality. Pink Moon aimed to eliminate waste from public view. They set ambitious new recycling targets, all while trying to reduce their commercial waste management costs.

In partnership with Binit, they succeeded in their effort to eliminate waste. Customers no longer walk past bins but can still see their recycling efforts. Our branding allows for staff to recycle more easily and our partnerships reduced costs from increasing recycling rates. All this came from small changes introduced by simply switching commercial waste providers. Hospitality often suffers the most from waste and we’re helping put a stop to this.

Pizza Express: From waste everything to waste nothing

Pizza Express have been serving customers in Exeter pizzas and delicious desserts since 1998. That also happens to be the year our business relationship manager, Ethan, was born! However, after Ethan met with management, Pizza Express realised it was time to Binit better. After all, waste had been causing issues since the beginning:

  • With no options to recycle, everything was sent to landfill
  • Costs spiralled out of control as recycling was never reviewed
  • Over a tonne of rubbish was produced every week!

This is where Binit started to think different. We started with the waste itself. The majority of the weight which was contributing to high costs, was from food and glass. As both of these can be recycled, we provided dedicated recycling options which were less costly and reduced contamination in the dry recycling. We then separated the cardboard, plastic and cartons from the rest of the waste, allowing them to go from wasting everything, to recycling upwards of 70% of their waste!

You can see the improvements this made to just one store in our poster. What might surprise you is that they now save 50% of their waste management costs as a result! Waste nothing, including money!

Our slogan is to Binit better. Whether you’re a customer of ours or not, we want to help with waste. Since becoming a customer, Pizza Express have made even more improvements to their recycling. This includes internal eduction and signage to help employees. You can find out how we’ve helped other businesses too, like Pink Moon. Do you find some of the issues we’ve mentioned apply to you too? You should contact us! We’d love to hear from you, and you don’t have to produce a tonne of waste a week to get our interest.

From the man himself, Ethan