Why you should care about SunSkips’ commitment to sustainable waste management

Since SunSkips launched in 2020, reviews from happy customers often reference our professional drivers, punctual deliveries and friendly staff.

Reviews such as these make our day as customer service is a core value to us, though we thought it might be worth drawing attention to one of SunSkips’ other unique selling points: our commitment to the environment and sustainable waste management.

SunSkips is passionate about environmentally friendly waste practices and our team is always looking into innovations in waste management that we can employ at our sites across Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.

But what is sustainable waste management all about and why should people who hire skips from us care about it as much as we do?

What is sustainable waste management?

Sustainable waste management means collecting, transporting and disposing of waste in the most environmentally friendly way possible.

For SunSkips, this is mostly about getting as much value as we can from the 3,000+ tonnes of waste we process every month and sending as little as possible to landfill.

“Getting away from landfill is one of our primary concerns at SunSkips,” said managing director Mathew Stewart. “We’re not zero-landfill yet, but we’re taking a lot of very positive steps in the right direction.”

SunSkips considers sustainable waste management to be a crucial part of the business, but it’s clear that a lot of people still don’t quite understand the benefits.

Why is sustainable waste management important for UK businesses?

The average person in England produces a whopping 392 kgs of waste a year according to Defra (Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs).

Without sustainable waste management practices, the country’s landfills simply aren’t going to be able to take much more of it.

Not only that, poor waste management leads to harmful plastics ending up in our oceans and killing marine life.

Unsustainable waste management also causes a lot of pollution. A good example is food waste, which doesn’t simply decompose if it ends up in landfill, it releases toxic methane.

MORE: Food waste recycling: The complete UK guide

Sustainability has become a highly desirable quality for people looking to buy from or work with businesses in the UK, but it’s not all just about good PR.

On the whole, sustainable waste management practices streamline businesses’ waste processes, making it cheaper to get rid of.

What if I’m just hiring a skip every now and again?

Perhaps you don’t produce large amounts of waste that could benefit from a cost and sustainability audit.

But because we’re so dedicated to environmentally friendly waste management, SunSkips may be able to offer discounts to customers that separate their waste into single streams at the source.

And if getting a discount on your bill doesn’t do it for you, the fact that we’re still prepared to sort through it all for you should! All the credibility of sustainable waste management; zero effort!

How to manage waste sustainably

SunSkips is always looking for ways to improve the sustainability of its waste management processes. It’s what gets us up in the morning and is at the heart of our business strategy.

Here’s a little bit about how we manage Suffolk and Cambridgeshire’s waste sustainably, as well as a few recommendations for best practices.

What happens to your waste once it arrives at a SunSkips site?

Firstly, onsite pickers pull out larger pieces of waste like doors, furniture and other obvious bits that can easily be reused.

Smaller pieces of mixed waste are then loaded onto a conveyor belt and carried onto a flip flow screen (basically a big vibrating sieve). Waste over 10mm is diverted onto another conveyor to be handpicked, while anything smaller than 10mm (known as “fines”) drops down into a container bay.

Medium-sized waste gets the overband magnetic separator treatment to pull out small pieces of metal like screws and nails. Then the air classifier blows out paper and light plastics to be taken to the recycling centre or sent off to be made into fuel.

Fines undergo a loss on ignition test to see what percentage is organic matter that can be used as soil (SunSkips is currently looking into ways we can further recycle soil in order to directly put it back into circulation from our own site).

MORE: How SunSkips’ recycling screening line works

Use licensed waste carriers

One of the key things consumers can do to promote sustainable waste management is to choose a company that holds a valid waste carrier’s licence.

This not only protects you legally and eliminates the risk of ending up with a fine, but it also means your waste is far less likely to be handled by someone who could just dump it down a country lane.

Flytipping is about as unsustainable as waste management gets and sadly, it’s a practice that saw an uptick during the pandemic. Dumping waste cost taxpayers across England a whopping £10.9 million in the year 2019/20.

You can check SunSkips’ waste carrier’s licence on the Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs’ register of waste carriers, brokers and dealers (SunSkips is registered as Stowmarket Skips Ltd).

Fuel-efficient lorries for waste transport

SunSkips’ DAF lorries boast an extra 6-7% in fuel efficiency than previous models, making them a good choice for sustainable waste transport.

On top of fuel efficiency, SunSkips also uses software that calculates the most efficient routes for our drivers’ skip collections and deliveries.

Refuse, reduce, reuse, repurpose, recycle

The easiest way to manage waste sustainably? Don’t create it in the first place.

• Refuse difficult-to-recycle materials like polystyrene and plastic bags.
• When it’s not possible to refuse, reduce the amount of waste you’re creating with smarter procurement.
• Reuse containers and materials to reduce waste (and save money).
• Repurpose: find alternative uses for things to give them a longer lifespan.
• Recycling is the last step, but definitely better than sending waste to landfill.

In the construction industry, doors or decorative items can be reused in other buildings. Construction waste like rubble can be recycled into concrete., while unused materials can be saved for future projects (or sold to other contractors).

In fact, construction companies can expect to see waste management savings as high as 15% by taking stock of their processes.

Waste to energy

SunSkips is proud to be sending waste that’s not fit for recycling to be used as solid recovered fuel (SRF).

This is mostly household and commercial waste that would normally go to landfill, like plastics, contaminated paper and cardboard. SRF is used to power industrial boilers and cement kilns.

Mathew said, “We are developing more SunSkips sites south of Cambridge and in North East Suffolk in 2022. SRF is a big part of our strategy there too.”

Future waste management ideas to keep an eye on

The future is bright for sustainable waste management, with constant innovations that promise to further improve the way we handle rubbish. Here are a few that the SunSkips team is particularly excited about.

Alternative fuels

SunSkips is looking into hydrogen power for the future of its onsite machinery.

The infrastructure is not currently in place for this to be a realistic option right now, but promising developments in hydrogen engines might mean it’s not too far away.

In fact, hydrogen energy became an even more widely discussed prospect with the recent withdrawal of rebated fuels for industrial use, which will force waste management companies to pay full duty or consider alternatives.

Smart bins

Inefficient waste collections will soon be a thing of the past when data from smart bins lets drivers know whether or not the containers are actually ready to be emptied.

And it’s not only data that makes smart bins more efficient, many are also fitted with solar-powered compactors that reduce waste by as much as 10 times.

RFID tracking

RFID (radio-frequency identification) is the technology used in shops to prevent shoplifters taking items out without paying, but it’ll soon be employed to track waste that’s being dumped illegally.

“The government has started tracking waste digitally from domestic and commercial properties through its entire life cycle to make sure everything is going where it’s supposed to,” explained Mathew.

Being about to track the chain of custody will make it far easier for authorities to thwart rogue waste carriers in the future.

Sustainable building materials

Construction waste makes up a huge amount of UK waste (62%), but sustainable building materials might go some way to bringing that figure down.

Self-healing concrete, for example, is made up of a bacteria mixture that’s activated when water gets into the cracks, making it expand to fill them.

Chip[s] Board is another interesting alternative material that uses potato waste as a substitute for MDF (medium-density fibreboard).

And Concretene is a graphene/concrete composite that requires no steel reinforcement, meaning builders will need 30% less than standard concrete.

Sustainable waste management makes skip hire exciting

On a personal level, seeking out the most environmentally friendly methods to manage waste is one of the main things that makes the job so worthwhile for us.

We’re really excited that customers continue to be delighted by our great customer service, and we also can’t wait to chew their ears off about how we can help make their businesses and skip hire more sustainable.

“I just love being involved in a business that’s thriving, growing, and making a real difference,” added Mathew.

Ready to start doing business with a skip hire company that’s passionate about sustainable waste management? Get in touch today to find out how SunSkips can make your waste disposal processes more environmentally friendly.