To enable even more people to recycle a wider range of their unwanted goods, Waste King, the specialist collections, clearance and recycling company, has added an extra bin outside its headquarters in Hemel Hempstead’s Frogmore Industrial Estate.
In addition to the other collecting ‘banks’ at Waste King, this one is specifically for ‘books and music’ – in other words, unwanted books, CDs and DVDs.
Glenn Currie, Waste King’s managing director, explained: “We’ve noticed that more and more people are using our service – and that’s probably because of the continually increasing costs of skip hire, which is the main alternative to Waste King’s truck-based collection service.
“Waste King sends a truck and operatives to the customer’s premises and collects all the waste by hand,” he added. “We ask our customers to separate items such as electrical goods, books, DVDs and so on and, of course, our operatives sort the waste as they load and, later, unload it.
“These items are placed in the bins, recycled and resold – and this greatly reduces the amount of the waste that goes to landfill. Indeed, over 90 per cent of every load of waste that our operatives collect is recycled – which is good for the environment.”
Waste King’s devotion to recycling as much as possible of the waste it collects also means that its chosen charities, such as the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and the Salvation Army can benefit. Recently, Waste King gave the BHF 19 tonnes of recycled books, DVDs and music CDs that it had collected which the charity can re-sell to support the its work.
Waste King donates the clothing that it collects to The Salvation Army. Most clothes still have at least 70% of their useful life left when their owner disposes of them, believes the Salvation Army.
The income that the Salvation Army receives from its recycling activities – including those of Waste King – helps to fund beds for the homeless, cups of tea for the thirsty and food for the hungry.
“The extra waste bin at Waste King’s headquarters not only helps our operatives to store the segregated waste but it also encourages the public to donate their unwanted books, CDs and DVDs,” said Waste King’s operations director, Andy Cattigan. “This not only helps to benefit the work of some worthwhile charities but it also helps the environment by significantly reducing the amount of these materials that go to landfill.”
