Waste management
We currently monitor waste arising and the proportion of waste recycled from our First Great Western depots and our Peterborough depot in GB Railfreight. We have also monitored the waste arising at our major stations at First Great Western for two years, adding major stations at First Capital Connect and First TransPennine Express to the monitoring process this year.
Our ability to measure waste arising and the proportion recycled is strongly influenced by the nature of the waste management contracts that we inherit with each new franchise. We have recently centralised contracts for waste disposal, allowing us to extend the scope of our waste reporting next year.
We monitor waste arising for depots and stations separately as we have more control over depot waste. At stations, much of the waste we handle is on-board waste generated by our customers. The waste collected may be from services operated by other train operating companies as well as our own.
| Total waste arising at First Great Western depots, GB Railfreight Peterborough Depot and First Capital Connect (tonnes) | |
|---|---|
| 07/08 | |
| Hazardous waste arising | 339 |
| Non-hazardous waste arising | 7,859 |
| Total waste arising at major stations in First Great Western, First TransPennine Express and First Capital Connect | ||
|---|---|---|
| Total Tonnes of Waste Produced | Percentage Recycled | |
| Non-hazardous waste | 9,094 | 5% |
We currently recycle around 9% of our non-hazardous waste at depots and 5% at stations. Our recycling rates have remained fairly constant over the past year but through the centralised waste contract we will look to improve our segregation and management of waste in order to reduce landfill disposal and improve our recycling rates.
We continue to promote recycling of phones and cartridges. This year we raised nearly £4,000 for Forest of Dreams, an ecological charity established to purchase, manage and preserve land in North Wales as a sanctuary for wildlife and environmental biodiversity.
We have a contract in place to dispose of our redundant IT equipment in line with the new regulatory framework. Wherever possible the company will refurbish and provide machines to charity.
Recycling at First Capital Connect’s Cricklewood Depot
With the re-opening of Cricklewood Depot came a fresh approach to cleaning and dealing with waste left on the trains. Whilst turnaround times for cleaning trains is limited a method was devised by local staff to remove waste from the trains and segregate it for recycling.
Waste is segregated by depot staff into paper, glass, plastic and metal (tins and cans). Around 30% of waste is recycled at Cricklewood each year.