Small businesses are among the worst recyclers, not because they don’t want to recycle, but because they often don’t have the resources available, says Dr Amitoj Singh, RecycleSmart’s Head of Sales.
Traditionally many commercial businesses have a red-lidded residual waste bin, but not a recycling bin. Or the types of waste to be disposed of are recyclable but not through the current yellow bin arrangement.
That’s where RecycleSmart comes in.
The on-demand recycling service has built a reputation on providing accessible solutions for hard-to-recycle waste through its Power Pickup. Residents schedule a pickup, put their recycling into any regular shopping bag and leave them outside for collection.
In June 2023, RecycleSmart introduced the Business Power Pickup to help recycle commercial waste in warehouses, construction sites and manufacturing businesses, and also smaller businesses, retailers and head offices. More than 700 businesses have since signed up, contributing to divert about 700,000 kilograms – or more than 16 million litres – of waste from landfill.
“Business owners knew this was an area where they needed help,” says Amitoj. “The Business Power Pickup is helping to take a lot of waste out of the red bin, such as polystyrene, soft plastics, and uniforms, and recycling it instead.”
Increased efficiency, reduced costs, traceability, and improved sustainability outcomes are just some of the benefits of the Business Power Pickup.
Following the collapse of soft plastics collection program REDCycle in 2022, transparency has become crucial, says Amitoj.
“RecycleSmart is 100 per cent transparent,” he says. “We tell businesses exactly where their material goes and what happens to it. For bigger businesses, or those that have environmental and social governance strategies, they need to know that.”
RecycleSmart works with a variety of collection vehicles, which means getting into tight locations, scheduling pick-ups when and where they’re needed and the quantity of waste to be collected (from 60 litres upwards), is no problem.
Neither is the type of waste. All waste streams can be collected, eliminating the need for multiple service tenders and contractors, and reducing the workload on internal resources.
“In New South Wales, there are a lot of businesses with a contractor behind every single waste stream, and that takes significant internal resourcing,” Amitoj says. “They can now have one contractor manage the entire collection.”
Soft plastic is the number one material recycled, but it’s not all chip wrappers. Commercial plastics, such as pallet wrap, can be difficult to dispose of because it occupies a lot of volume and is not accepted by many recyclers.
Foam, used to protect furniture, is also classed as a soft plastic but is not currently recyclable in Australia. It’s one of a few items for which RecycleSmart is working toward a solution.
And Amitoj is confident a solution will be found. As RecycleSmart’s program extends, more recyclers are reaching out for the service to provide quality feedstock. Businesses are also coming forward with waste streams that RecycleSmart doesn’t currently collect.
And it doesn’t stop there. With 24/7 live reports available and a new traceability system, RecycleSmart helps businesses and councils measure their impact.
“RecycleSmart has transformed how we handle soft plastics from our operations,” says Mary Karatasos, from Williams Logistics, a leading specialist provider of third-party logistics (3PL).
“It’s comforting to know that plastic from our operations are being recycled, making it easy for us to reduce our landfill contributions.”
Mary says sustainability in logistics, especially when servicing fashion brands, is critical so it has always been a part of 3PL. But it has never had the ability to track like it can now.
“Reporting and finding the right partners has been the biggest challenge we have faced on our sustainability journey,” Mary says. “Which is why it’s great to have partners like RecycleSmart that can track the impact of what we are doing. Finding the right partners has been critical to us feeling the change internally and having more belief in what we are doing.”
Amitoj says the partnership is an example of how RecycleSmart can help drive efficiency for businesses as well as getting everyone on board, for a long-term beneficial effect.
Mary agrees: “When our team can see the impact from the data, they feel a sense of pride and it makes it easier for them to buy into what we are doing.”
The Business Power Pickup service in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland has provided proof of concept. The service is being introduced in Adelaide.
“It’s very exciting,” Amitoj says. “We want this strategy for the entire nation, it’s just a matter of finding the right partners.
“Businesses are very fast moving. They want their resources recycled as quickly as possible, and that’s what we want as well.”
For more information, visit: www.recyclesmart.com
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