Know what type of waste your business produces
To be able to know what kind of bins your business will need, you must first understand what type (and how much) waste your company produces. The best way to get this information is to conduct a waste audit. You can also use our handy free service recommendation tool.
Conducting a waste audit is the process of noting down all the types of waste you see enter your bins each week. You’ll also need to note an estimate of how much of each waste type you are producing. For instance, how many bags of general waste are you filling up each week?
To find out in more detail about how to conduct a waste audit you should refer to our blog post (here) dedicated entirely to this topic.
But after conducting your waste audit you will now be able to identify the types of bins your business may need.
Understand the type of bin needed for the following waste streams
If you have identified that you are producing any of the following waste types then jump to each relevant type and read about what kind of bin you will need…
General Waste
This is the most common type of waste produced by businesses and includes things such as used napkins, non-recyclable packaging, and food wrappers which can’t be cleaned such as a greasy pizza box.
For this type of waste, unsurprisingly, you’ll need a General Waste Bin which is a standard container – usually a plastic wheelie-bin. Find out more about general waste here.
Paper, Card, and Metal
If you see that your business is discarding plenty of paper, card, or metal such as aluminium cans, then you will need a Dry-Mixed Recycling bin.
All of these materials can be mixed together and put into this type of bin as long as they are dry and not contaminated by food or other chemicals. Soft Drink cans, for instance, should be washed out before being disposed of in this bin. Find out more about dry-mixed recycling here.
Glass
Restaurants and bars tend to produce a lot of glass waste due to them selling drinks which are packaged in glass bottles. Jars are another common form of glass waste.
If you are producing this type of waste you will need a dedicated Glass Waste Bin. You will need to make sure that only glass goes into this bin and that any food residue is removed from jars for instance. Find out more about glass waste here.
Food
Once again, for obvious reasons, this type of waste is produced most commonly by restaurants but it is also fairly typical for offices to produce it too since employees will bring in food for lunches.
For this type of waste, you will need a dedicated Food Waste Bin so that the organic material can be used to make biofuel and compost. It is very important that you do not contaminate this bin by placing any non-food items such as glass in it – otherwise, it will not be recyclable. Find out more about food waste here.
Clinical Waste
This type of waste includes materials such as swabs, bandages, and nappies. If your business is producing this type of waste, you will need a dedicated Clinical Waste Bin and the bin needs to be clearly labelled and moved around carefully since the waste it holds could be potentially harmful to humans.
Find out more information about clinical waste here.
Hazardous Waste
If your business discards any type of material which may be easily ignitable, reactive, corrosive, or toxic then you will need a dedicated Hazardous Waste Bin. Similar to the clinical waste bin, this container will need to be clearly labelled and moved with care. Often this bin will also have a lockable lid.
Common hazardous waste materials include batteries, pesticides, and ink toner. Find out more about hazardous waste here.
Confidential Document Waste
If you have a lot of documents with important private information on them which need to be disposed of then it would be wise to use a shredder and accompanying bin where the shredded material falls straight into the waste container. Businesses which typically need this type of bin are accountants and lawyers.
Find out more information about secure document shredding here.
Large Waste
This type of waste is usually something that your business will produce quite rarely unless you’re in the construction industry. But you may end up with large waste items such as chairs and sofas when carrying out a refurbishment of your office or restaurant for example.
For this type of waste, you will need a skip hire in order to clear your large waste items without needing to own such a large waste container permanently. You can get various sizes of skips to suit your disposal needs. Find out more information about skip hire here.
If you need any type of business bin delivered to your site and your collections taken care of then do not hesitate to get a free quote with us today by using the quick and easy form below.
