Zeroing in on the Challenge: Peterborough Firms seal up their bins for a fortnight
Peterborough’s Zero Waste Place initiative sets a long-term aim of redirecting all waste away from Landfill. For many local businesses the beginning of that journey starts simply by increasing the amount of waste they recycle and reducing the amount which ends up in their general waste bin. However, seven Peterborough firms accepted the much more challenging test of going completely Zero for a whole fortnight.

To help prepare for the challenge, these businesses were given a set of tips and resources
to help them prepare and communicate the idea with staff. Armed with these, all staff were expected to do everything possible to eliminate, reuse or recycle all waste produced in their office. Here’s a flavor of how they got on…

ICING ON THE CAKE FOR ANNE CORDER RECRUITMENT
Already operating in a virtually paperless office, Anne Corder Recruitment was keen to extend its green credentials to cover general office waste
too.

Receptionist Lucy Dawson, who was appointed
as the Zero Hero said, “Most of us are pretty
green, recycling at home as well as in the office but we all agreed it made us more aware of what we throw in the general rubbish bin. The biggest difficulty in the first week was with our cleaners putting all the rubbish together outside making it
difficult for the refuse collectors to determine
which was recycling,” said Lucy. “To combat this
we clearly labeled the bins in our yard.”

By the end of the fortnight, Lucy and the rest of the staff had reached their goal of producing Zero Waste – a habit they intend to continue.

Project Manager for the Zero Waste Place initiative, Ian Tennant was delighted with the
agency’s efforts. “I was already impressed with Anne Corder Recruitment’s efforts to go
paperless,” he said. “The thorough approach they took during the Zero Waste fortnight
challenge has put the icing on the cake.”

Local, family-run waste contractor, Donarbon Ltd, is able to collect and compost all your food waste.
It is estimated that the hospitality industry alone creates over 3 million tonnes of food waste every year and most of this ends up in landll. With landll tax increasing every year by £8 per tonne, this is becoming a very expensive option for businesses. Cambs-based Donarbon is able to process all food waste from kitchens, including peelings, fruit skins, scrap meat and sh bones, egg shells and used tea bags, plus left-overs plate scrapings. The waste is taken to the company's modern composting facility at Waterbeach near Cambridge, which complies with the latest Animal By-Products Regulations, and is licensed to take all catering waste. Making use of food waste collection services such as these can even save you money compared to general waste collections.

 

From A to B to Zero
It’s been hard not to notice the Construction work in Cathedral Square during the past few weeks, but have you stopped to think about where all the old paving stones, bricks, soil and street furniture will end up after the re-development is finished? Well, the Zero Waste Place team were keen to make sure that these valuable materials didn’t end up travelling by skip to the nearest landfill site. Instead they are being put to good use by local garden projects, allotments and sports clubs.

The main construction firm, Osbornes, who are tasked with carrying out the redevelopment
already had good intentions for minimising waste on site. To help them gain commitment from key stakeholders in City the ZWP team put them in touch with local contacts eager to make use of the resources.

The outcome was one that will benefit the local community for years to come.