Waste Collection

Commercial waste is any rubbish produced from business activities. Any refuse created in an office, on a trade site, entertainment or leisure centre, and any other organisation’s premises classes as commercial waste. Types of commercial waste vary from general waste to glass, paper, and card recycling, food, liquid, and hazardous waste. Commercial waste is also any rubbish from:

• Construction
• Industry
• Agriculture
• Demolition

Businesses have a legal duty of care to properly manage any waste they produce following UK government guidelines. Domestic waste is normally collected and disposed of by local councils and authorities, but most don’t deal with commercial waste. Instead, commercial waste must be removed by licensed waste carriers.

Commercial waste collection is simply the safe and secure pickup of any rubbish your business produces and its transfer to a relevant treatment or disposal facility. Licensed waste carriers visit your business premises at an agreed time and accessible point to collect the bins, bags, or containers full of your rubbish.

Collection of commercial waste basically covers three stages:

• The physical collection of business waste stored in bins or bags.
• Transportation of the waste to a recycling or other appropriate facility for sorting.
• Disposal of commercial waste by recycling, incineration, or going to landfill.

It’s an essential part of any business’ waste management plan. In the UK, companies are bound by a duty of care to protect the environment and human health with your waste disposal. Commercial waste collection companies help businesses meet their duty of care by providing safe and environmentally friendly waste collection methods.

Any rubbish a company produces classes as business waste. This could be something as small as a crisp packet thrown in an office kitchen bin, to large quantities of metal offcuts that are by products from a manufacturing plant. Waste collection methods vary depending on the type produced – from a couple of bags to bulk waste collection for large and heavy items.

Common types of business waste include:

• General waste – everyday rubbish that’s not recyclable
• Dry mixed recycling – paper, packaging, plastic drinks bottles
• Glass waste – glass bottles, jars, and glass shards
• Metal recycling – drinks cans, metal offcuts from manufacturing
• Food waste – larger quantities of expired, unsellable, or uneaten food

The type and amount of rubbish you use affects the right kind of commercial bin collection for your business. Some of the main types of bins used for commercial waste collection include:

• Wheelie bins
• Waste drums and barrels
• Skips
• Roll on roll offs
• Balers and compactors

Explore the full range of bins we provide for storage and collection.

There is no one size for a commercial waste bin. Any bin used to store business waste classes as a commercial waste bin. Common sizes of commercial waste bins include 240 litre wheelie bins, 660 litre wheelie bins, and four-wheel 1100 litre bins. Other types of commercial waste bins that come in various sizes include:

• Skips
• Front end loaders
• Rear end loaders
• Waste compactors
• Balers

Explore all commercial waste bin sizes

Waste collection bags can be used to safely secure your business waste if local by-laws protect the collection of bins, or you don’t have space for bins on your property. They’re also used to store clinical waste types, which can be placed in bins as well. These waste bags include:

• Red waste bags – for anatomical waste
• Purple waste bags – for cytotoxic and cytostatic waste
• Yellow waste bags – for highly infectious hazardous waste
• Orange waste bags – for infectious waste
• Yellow and black waste bags – for non-infectious waste

All commercial waste bins have a maximum weight limit. This varies depending on the size of the bin and the type of waste you put in it. Waste disposal is charged based on the weight rather than the volume, which means exceeding these costs more for our waste carriers to dispose of it.

When we collect your waste, it will be weighed. If it’s over the limit for the bin and waste type, you may have to pay more for its removal and disposal – an overweight charge. We’re happy to talk you through this and help arrange collection of more or larger bins, or more frequent collections to avoid overweight charges.

It depends on the type and size of bins you’re getting collected. Ideally, they need to be delivered and collected to the same place that’s easy enough for our vehicles to fit down. Or you can arrange collection from the roadside if it’s easier, in some cases. Speak to our team and they can assess whether it’s accessible or not.

For a smooth collection we need to know:

• Access times
• Key or codes required
• Any height or width restrictions

Yes, if your business starts producing more, less, or a different waste type, you can easily change your contract. We appreciate your needs may change within a year, so are happy to adapt if you want more or fewer bins delivering, or to increase or decrease how often they’re collected.

Call our customer care team on 01904 207 120, email [email protected] or contact us online to change your contract.

A bin emptying service is included with all our commercial waste collections. Licensed waste carriers will visit your premises and remove your full bins from the agreed pickup point. These are then transported to a relevant nearby waste management centre for emptying, recycling, and processing the contents – whatever the type of waste.

As part of our bin emptying service, we’ll deliver free bins to replace your old ones if you’ve arranged daily, weekly, or fortnightly collections. For any one-off or ad hoc collections, we’ll simply remove the bins for emptying from your premises without replacing them.

Businesses can dispose of their own commercial waste if they are registered as licensed waste carriers. This is the only way you can legally remove and transport commercial waste away from your premises. However, you can’t dispose of commercial waste at most household waste recycling centres (HWRCs).

As well as being a licensed waste carrier you must take your rubbish to a facility that accepts commercial waste for disposal and recycling. For many organisations it’s quicker and more convenient to use a professional waste management company, such as Business Waste, to dispose of commercial waste safely and legally.