How we helped a leading infrastructure services provider adopt and benefit from ZeroWaste, our secure garment disposal service.
M Group are a leading infrastructure services provider operating within water, energy, transport, and telecommunication sectors. M Group own roughly 17 different businesses with UK-wide coverage. We were thrilled to help M Group adopt our ZeroWaste recycling & destruction service, provided by Avena, which securely and sustainably disposes of ALL their workwear & PPE.
M Group use footwear, workwear, and different types of waterproof clothing. They also require flame retardant protective clothing from head to toe, hard hats, gloves, and respiratory protection. This makes our “everything gets recycled” container solution even more appealing.
We began by working with M Group on their PPE & workwear requirements. We looked at the products, at the sale of goods, cost-in-use, and started the key conversations around sustainability. This included posing the question: what happens to their PPE & workwear at the end of their life?
Although there are other end-of-life options on the market, these solutions are often not fully sustainable or part of a circular economy. And most end-of-life solutions require customers to spend time separating waste. Not only does this take up resource, but it also requires multiple on-site bins.
But ZeroWaste means just that: zero waste. It’s a truly sustainable PPE & workwear recycling service as nothing goes into landfill. It also consists of using only one bin for all the PPE & workwear. This bin is sized according to the customer’s business and collected at a frequency that suits the customer.
Any item of PPE & workwear can go into the bin. From footwear to gloves, all the way through to safety equipment and harnesses. This all gets taken away and sorted, before being sent off to one of three recycling tiers depending on the materials and condition of the product:
With sustainability budgets becoming more commonplace with businesses, it’s important to give customers such as M Group a service that demonstrates both their commitment to sustainability, but also measurable evidence of how they have made a positive impact.
With ZeroWaste you get a certificate at the end of each recycling process, proving the difference the service has made. You also get a dashboard report every month with a detailed analysis of what's been recycled, who it was collected by, and how many products have gone to the various tiers.
Yes! Not only is there the recycling benefits and sustainability aspect to the service, but it’s also a SECURE destruction of workwear and PPE. Many of these products have logos printed on them, which, if not disposed of correctly, can pose a security risk to the company through misuse.
If a business puts these products straight in the bin at the end of their life, then people with less than good intentions could get hold of the product and impersonate a member of the company. For a company like M Group with a multiple-sector presence, this must be prevented at any cost.
M Group uses the ZeroWaste service at 85 locations. With flexible options, M Group found that a simple rollout was best, with our standard 12-week collection process and the standard size bin. We have also set up an ongoing usage review, so that the right proactive amendments can be made.
As is often the case when ZeroWaste is adopted, the first collection is the biggest. This is because people use the opportunity to dispose of PPE and workwear found in storage cupboards and desks that they were reluctant to remove without first having a secure and sustainable recycling option.
It’s vital that workwear and PPE gets disposed of properly. Unlike general clothing, it cannot be simply given away or sold. Without a secure and sustainable disposal service in place these products get disproportionally put into landfill. Call us today about ZeroWaste on 01202 718000.
