Frequently Asked Questions

Monitoring gives clients access to information such as the variation of waste produced over time, emissions associated with waste disposal, and how much material is being recycled – enabling our customers to assess trends over time. This makes improvement and potential improvement both environmentally and financially easier to spot, maintain, replicate, and develop.

As part of Bywaters’ services, a dedicated sustainability expert will carry our regular in-depth waste audits to ensure all of your waste data is collected accurately, and then you will be able to access all of this information at the click of a button through our bespoke reporting platform.

Incineration, or sending waste material for recovery at energy from waste facilities, is an option that we only use when necessary in order to divert non-recyclable waste form landfill.

Energy from waste destroys much of the material that goes through the process, but incineration does produce a further waste material in the form of tonnes of ash. This ash is used by construction companies and the like for use as aggregate for use in projects such as road building.

A MRF is a materials recovery facility. This is where all segregated waste goes to be further sorted and baled for recycling. Our MRF is composed of a series of roll screens, infrared optical sorting equipment, magnets, and eddy currents that sort waste through different air tunnels. This allows waste to be detected and effectively segregated into the more specific streams of: paper, cardboard, metals, glass and plastics.

Some of these materials go on to be further refined such as metals being streamed into ferrous and non-ferrous, or plastics being separated into HDPE (High-density polyethylene) and PET (Polyethylene terephthalate). Following this, the waste is baled before being transported to specialist facilities in order to be processed and recycled.

To recycle something means to recover the material the product is made from so as to be able to make new items from it and thus prevent the unnecessary production of more of that material. Reusing waste is the process of salvaging items which can be used again without having to break products down into their component materials.

Reusing items is preferable wherever possible, because any recycling process will still use energy and cause emissions which could be eliminated completely if products are reused.

The waste hierarchy is a guideline used for the management of waste in terms of what is the most sustainable way to handle waste materials. The waste hirerarchy has 5 steps, with the aim being to handle waste by using as early a step as possible and thus reduce its environmental impact.

1. Reduce (also known as prevention)
2. Reuse
3. Recycle
4. Recovery
5. Disposal

Bywaters is a waste management company and so our work primarily deals interacts with the hierarchy from recycling onwards, and we have a commitment to send zero waste direct to landfill, with all non-recyclable waste being sent for recovery at energy from waste facilities.

It’s cheaper. Not only is recycling waste better for the environment, but it will also save your business money as legislation such as the Landfill Tax has been specifically brought in to encourage businesses in the UK to dispose of their waste more sustainably.

Typically, every step your business takes up the waste hierarchy will result in financial savings, and Bywaters’ team of Green Gurus will work with you to ensure your waste management services take up as little of your budget as possible.

We take a serious approach to cutting CO2, looking at every part of our service to see where reductions can be made. Bywaters’ sustainability initiatives include our Solar Powered materials recovery facility, low emissions and electric vehicles, and transporting waste via waterways as part of our ‘London for London’ approach.

For more information, have a look at our page dedicated to our carbon reduction efforts.

Bywaters have set principles focused on waste prevention and the waste hierarchy for the disposal of our customers’ waste. We find alternative solutions in order to reuse, recycle, or recover energy from waste, diverting waste from landfill and ensuring that more environmentally sustainable solutions are found.

As a business, Bywaters carries out the first stage of the recycling process: sorting different waste streams from each other so that these materials can be recycled. At our facilities, materials are segregated using specialised equipment, bales, and then sent off to reprocessors who recycle the waste into new products.

This means that Bywaters doesn’t recycle any of these materials into new products at our facilities, but instead partners with businesses across the UK to ensure all materials go to a facility where they can be recycled most efficiently.

Yes, we have a dedicated team of in-house engineers who can attend clients’ sites if anything goes wrong with a piece of equipment, usually with a maximum wait time of 4 hours. Unlike most other waste management providers, we do not have to rely on third party services for any of this, so can react to problems faster and more effectively.

A waste stream is the name of a group of waste that has been specially separated, e.g. dry mixed recycling (DMR), food, or construction waste. Once segregated, streams can go through the rest of the necessary processes for them to be recycled or reused in some way.

Without segregating waste streams from each other, it is impossible to recycle the materials. Our materials recovery facility in Bow sorts waste into over 10 different streams, serving businesses from every sector of the UK economy, and we then send bulked waste for recycling to partners across the UK.

Segregating waste just means separating it into groups that can be easily recycled. It’s what client’s do onsite and we all do at home: if you put some things in a recycling bin and some things in a food waste bin, then you’re segregating your waste.

Contamination is when the incorrect materials interact in a way that alters one enough that the recycling process won’t work or one ends up at the wrong facility, where there is no available means of recycling it.

In order to make sure that your waste can be recycled, it is important to avoid contamination. For instance, if you’re using Bywaters’ services to recycle toners and batteries, it is important you collect both of these streams separately.

If possible the ideal option is for our clients to segregate their waste on site if they have the means and infrastructure in place. Some waste streams, such as construction waste and dry mixed recycling, are composed of multiple materials and require our specialised facilities to separate the streams from each other for recycling.

It is important that waste is correctly segregated to assist the recycling process, for example by ensuring hazardous waste such as batteries are collected together rather than ending up in a general recycling bin.

Upon partnering with Bywaters, learning materials will become available to clients to train and inform the relevant staff. This will typically be those who will have any need to handle or manage the waste on site. There are also aids provided for all staff for use when disposing of waste, as this is the point of initial segregation.

Bywaters provide a tailor-made and bespoke training service by our Green Gurus, sustainability advisers who are a central part of services. Whether you’re a property manager or work in the healthcare sector, our Green Gurus will provide training and waste material for your employees, and then continue to support you through their onsite management services.