SITA UK increases amount of waste recycled and recovered

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The amount of waste recycled and recovered by SITA UK increased to 3.6 million tonnes, according to its newly released Sustainability Report 2012.

This compares to 2.3 million tonnes in 2011. It also means that out of the 8.5 million tonnes it collected in 2012, it was able to recycle or recover 41.9 per cent of the material compared to just 28.8 per cent in 2011.

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One of the highlights for SITA UK in the report is its involvement in the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games where it was required to, and succeeded in, providing a zero waste to landfill games.

It collected 9,319 tonnes of recyclables and waste with the main material types being biodegradable kitchen and canteen waste, biodegradable food and food packaging, paper and cardboard, plastic bottles, plastic bags and plastic wrap and wood.

Before the games, SITA worked with suppliers such as Coca-Cola, McDonalds and Heineken UK to limit the type of materials that could be used to package food and drinks at Olympic venues and control the waste stream to make recycling easier.

Other achievements for SITA included reducing its landfill emissions to 395,241 tonnes equivalent of CO2 compared to 688,413 tonnes equivalent CO2 in 2011.

It also generated 307,665MWh of electricity from waste in 2012 compared to 209,325 tonnes in 2011.

While it reduced the fuel use of its vehicles to 15,236,528 litres in 2012 from 20,498,850 a year earlier by reducing the number of miles travelled and by giving 850 of its drivers EcoTrak technology to optimise driving styles and limiting its LGV fleet to 50 miles per hour.

In a letter introducing the Sustainability Report 2012, SITA UK chief executive David Palmer-Jones wrote: “Our latest report details the progress we have made on building a number of large infrastructure projects and our continued determination to find ways to protect our environment by putting waste to good use.

“As in previous years, the report is structured around the waste management cycle within the circular economy. We feature our activities at each stage and look at how we are actively engaging in the extraction of value from the materials we handle.

“We also report on the successful delivery of one of the most prestigious contracts in our 24-year history – providing recycling and waste management services for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.”