- Created by Alex Kendrick.
- If your teams haven’t felt it yet, they will: new rules have changed how every multi-site business handles waste.
- In April 2025 the waste industry saw a drastic shift in England. The requirement is simple but sweeping: all businesses with 10 or more employees across all locations must now segregate food, mixed recycling and glass. Many expected the threshold to soften – but it didn’t – so the operational reality is higher costs, storage constraints, and process change.
- Why the friction? Suppliers weren’t prepared – there’s been a lack of containers, a lack of skilled workforce, and a lack of vehicles.
- ERA’s playbook is to de-risk early: get the right containers on site, train staff before day one, and re-test the market so contracts reduce costs where possible while locking in providers that actually fit how your sites operate.
- The smartest response treats waste as a managed supply chain, not a utility bill. One client, for example, faced a five-figure secure-destruction bill for mis-labelled polyester dog cushions. Instead, we sourced an agglomeration route where the material is re-melted, cooled and chopped into pellets – a lower-grade output, but with a viable outlet.
- The result: £7,000 of savings from this one solution. For leaders, the bigger prize is structural. More often than not, waste invoices hide excessive costs because waste isn’t owned as a core responsibility. Teams are busy, it’s not a core KPI, and the category gets minimal scrutiny – so prices rise unchecked and unchallenged.
- We regularly see £120+ billed for a single wheelie-bin lift that should only cost around £15. Manufacturing is often the richest vein – especially where headcount totals push small sites over the compliance line.
- This isn’t a marginal housekeeping change; it’s a multi-site operating model shift that can either erode margin or fund itself. Move early, treat waste as a controllable supply chain, and look for ways to turn compliance cost into measurable savings – whether through renewed internal focus or support from specialists such as ERA Group.
- For more information, please speak to your ERA consultant.
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