No business sector has been spared the disturbance the coronavirus pandemic has caused, and not least waste management.
A habitual act for both households and businesses alike, taking the bins out for their scheduled collection is one part of routine that has continued throughout lockdown and beyond.
And, as frontline workers were rightly praised on our doorsteps each Thursday night, it would be forgiven if waste collectors were not at the forefront of people’s thanks.
But for households from Perth to Plymouth, and those businesses that remained open or have re-emerged since, the often-overlooked service has barely wavered.
For commercial waste collections in particular however, the challenges of lockdown have simply exacerbated upon its gradual lifting.
In the first two weeks of lockdown, it was estimated that a quarter of all UK businesses had temporarily closed.
On 11 May, the government published its Covid-19 recovery strategy, which has catalysed a steady return to normality.
The first step of the strategy encouraged those who could safely return to their workplace to do so, while further actions have since been taken to open markets, car showrooms and then pubs, hairdressers, museums and more.
This has often made for logistical difficulties for those planning and executing business waste disposal.
Waste collection is an unrecognised organisational challenge, with itineraries carefully planned to accommodate time restrictions, pre-planned disruptions such as roadworks, and other difficulties such as routes that are simply inaccessible for a large truck, all while fulfilling daily duties in the most cost-effective manner.
While businesses sporadically open, regularly at short notice, it has forced regular and last-minute reroutes for those collecting business waste.
This also has a sprawling effect on other businesses, whose scheduled pick-up date may change due to the reinstating of more customers, this increasing the likelihood of missed collections.
In addition, many reopening businesses have found themselves with an accumulation of waste, either through cleaning, refurbishing or dead stock from their closures, meaning trucks have also had to service these one-off, emergency pick-ups.
Social distancing, decreased footfall and general anxiety has also resulted in plummeting customer numbers for countless businesses that have re-adorned their welcome signs.
Reports suggest that pub and restaurant sales were down 50% in July from that of the previous year, meaning many businesses that do reinstate their waste services also reevaluate them, again causing staggers and changes to schedules.
Another battle for binmen has been full street closures or pavement extensions to allow for social distancing in city-centres and busy or narrow streets.
The resulting tighter roads have become unnegotiable for trucks and coupled with road closures have made some bins difficult if not impossible to access.
Thank you
Despite ongoing challenges, we are pleased to be welcoming customers back daily and working with our partners to promptly navigate any problems that arise.
CheaperWaste would like to thank our partners and those in waste management throughout the UK for their dedicated work throughout these unprecedented times.
We also echo these thanks to our customers for their support and patience throughout this challenging period.
We appreciate that it has been difficult to reach us over the past few weeks and our response time has not been as quick as we would have liked, but we are working to improve this.
If your business is reopening and you would like to reinstate your waste collections, please notify us at the earliest opportunity.
For a free quote, please click here.
