York businesses to benefit from cheaper, greener waste collections

A tidy new package of waste collections for York businesses has been sourced by the BID.

The new service promises to be a cheaper and greener way for city firms to dispose of their rubbish.

Forge Recycling has come on board as the recommended supplier of York BID (Business Improvement District), following a tendering process.

Its distinctive disposal vehicles will hit the streets this month, and it will mean an average annual saving of around 20% for those businesses who sign up.

Other added bonuses are weekend collections, a commitment to avoid sending anything to landfill, and cardboard bale pick-ups.

Cleaner city

Cleanliness of the city centre and business support are two of the key challenges that the BID was set up to tackle.

Executive director Andrew Lowson is confident that the new appointment will address both:

• City centre businesses face a number of challenges with waste management, and we set out to find a provider that would operate seven days a week and increase the options for recycling, whilst saving businesses money.

  The appointment of Forge Recycling as our trade waste partner achieves all of these objectives and more, with new options including recycling of coffee cups and composting of vegware, which fit perfectly with our city centre businesses.
  

It is hoped that many city centre businesses will sign up for the scheme, which will have wider benefits for the city.

“We have a large number of different providers all navigating York’s narrow streets to service businesses, but we genuinely believe that Forge Recycling’s offer is the best available,” Andrew said.

“The more companies they serve, the fewer vehicles will be on York’s streets, reducing pollution and congestion in the morning and late afternoon.”

There should be no need to leave waste bags on the pavement from Friday evening until Monday morning because of regular weekend collections – eliminating the mess that “often clogs up pavements and doorways at the time when we want our city to look the best”.

New centre

To help service the city centre, Leeds-based Forge Recycling is planning to open an additional distribution centre on the outskirts of York.

Forge’s commercial manager Chris Hale said:

• Environmental awareness sits at the heart of our business, with a wide range of recycling services to minimise the amount of waste that goes to landfill.

  We aim for 100% avoidance of landfill, so our services include food waste collection as well as effective handling of the latest ‘green’ vegware that is increasingly being used by ethical street food providers.

  Although this decomposes in landfill, it is far better to compost – a service that few companies currently provide.
  

As part of the York BID agreement, participating businesses will benefit from economies of scale, with no annual increase in the waste contract price, but possible reductions as more sign up to the service.

Businesses will also benefit from one free cardboard bale collection each week.

The tender process was undertaken by York BID with expert support from Eunomia, a company specialising in waste management consultancy, to evaluate each of the bids.

All businesses in the city centre are eligible to join. For more details, please call 01904 202499 or email [email protected].