How to choose a recycling service for the Office sector

Estimated reading time: 5 min

With your bins and storage ready to go, and an idea of how many collections you’ll need each week, month and year, the next step is to find a to collect your recycling on a regular basis. This next section details the type of procurement process you could follow to choose a new provider.

One option is to contact your current waste services provider, if you have one, as they may be able to provide a quote for adding recycling onto your existing waste collection. Another option is to contact your local council, as they’re required (if asked) to collect commercial waste. They may be able to advise on local service providers or collect your recyclables and waste themselves.

Alternatively, you can appoint a new service provider. You may want to contact few potential providers before asking them for quotes to ensure they can provide the service you want. You could also ask questions as part of a quotation process, either online or face-to-face.

Good to know
Any waste collected from your workplace must be collected by a Registered Waste Carrier.
You can confirm your service provider is registered by visiting the Public Register of Waste Carriers, Brokers and Dealers. Remember, if you produce specialist or – such as printer cartridges – you’ll need to contact a specialist service provider.

The recycling procurement process

The form your procurement process takes will depend on the size of your business.

If you’re a small business, you may be happy to choose the right service by obtaining several competitive quotes, based on bin numbers, sizes and frequency of collections. You could ask for references from their customers and arrange on-site visits by the potential service provider.

For larger businesses/organisations, a formal procurement process may be more appropriate. This would involve specifying the service requirements and standards and evaluating responses, and your head office or central procurement team would likely do this for you. We’ve talked more about this below.

Checklist: questions to ask a potential recycling provider

Whatever the size of your organisation and whichever procurement process you choose, here’s a set of questions you should ask the potential service provider.

What waste and recycling services can you provide to enable my organisation to recycle in line with national strategy requirements?
Do you operate in my local area?
Are you a registered waste carrier?
How will you ensure that I comply with the Duty of Care legislation?
Do you collect from other premises in my area? Can you provide references for contracts?
Do you provide collection containers? Will I own the collection containers, are they rented separately or are they part of the overall service price?
Where do you take the waste, dry recyclables and food waste once collected?
Do you use a local transfer station? Where does it get sorted and reprocessed?
How will you supply me with accurate waste and recycling data, in terms of weights, volumes, related to frequency of collection?
I have a fixed budget – what service can you provide and how can this be varied?
What is the minimum length of contract and notice period?
How long can you guarantee prices for, and what might any increases be each year and why?
If I recycle more, how much less might my service cost?
What are the cancellation charges and time periods?
How can you help make my business’s recycling more efficient?

What’s included in the collection price?

The more information you get from your potential service provider, the more you can understand how the price is arrived at and assess whether it’s good value for money. For all sizes of business or organisation, the price for your collection service should include:

The cost of the containers, bins or skips – unless you already own them
Maintenance and replacement of containers, bins or skips
Collection cost – including the vehicles, staff and any penalty charges
Duty of Care administration
and sorting costs of recyclables and the disposal of the general waste
The value of the recyclables – which might reduce your overall charges

It’s also important to be aware of potential hidden charges. A thorough discussion or tendering process will help you avoid being billed for unexpected service charges.