Waste Management
Over the past two years we have continued to develop our waste management processes. We have now appointed six approved waste contractors which are being used by 86% of our locations. The remaining 14% use other contractors for a number of reasons such as client preference, cost or isolated locations.
Through our approved vendors we now have baseline data on our waste arising and the proportion recycled. For those sites which do not participate in the approved vendor schemes this information has been obtained directly from the site.
| Total waste arising in North America and proportion recycled | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Waste Arising 05/06 | Total Waste Arising 06/07 | Total Waste Arising 07/08 | % Recycled | |
| Used Oil (m3) | 2,089 | 2,357 | 100 | 100 |
| Used Oil Filters (drums) | 2,270 | 1,477 | 1,699 | 100 |
| Anti-freeze( m3) | 168 | 143 | 200 | 100 |
| Oil-contaminated absorbents (drums) | 290 | 233 | 202 | 56% |
| Sludge from oil/water separator (m3) | 155 | 186 | 206 | 0 |
The vast majority of waste arising from our maintenance workshops is recycled: we landfill only a small proportion which consists of oil-contaminated absorbent and the sludge from the cleaning of our oil/water interceptors. Our relationship with Atlantic Industrial Services, Inc. is a primary contributor to our high recycling rates and allows us to achieve 100% recycling of our oil filters.
In relation to general waste arising from our offices and buses, recycling initiatives are run from local depots using local contractors to collect the waste. At present we have no figures on the proportion of this type of recycled waste but we have collated data on the number of depots that actively run recycling schemes.
In total, 125 of our facilities currently recycle general waste as follows:
- 71% recycle aluminium cans
- 56% recycle paper
- 59% recycle plastic containers; and
- 40% recycle glass
As part of our ongoing environmental programme we will encourage more locations to start recycling.