HOUSING UNITS’ SKIP-COPS AND BIN-BANS TURN RECYCLING UPSIDE DOWN.

A company-wide bin-ban has helped rubbish recycling ignorance as one of the region’s leading home furnishing stores sets the pace on green issues.

A team of skip-cops has been enforcing and encouraging recycling after Housing Units in Failsworth, Manchester, set up a working party 18 months ago to address the issue at its multi-store retail park and distribution centre – and management have been knocked sideways by the results.

“In 2007 we were recycling nothing. In autumn 2008 we were sending 80% of our waste and rubbish to landfill, but in winter 2009 we’re sending 80% for recycling – we’re frankly amazed at what the team has achieved, but it has also been a massive measure of how the country’s attitude to recycling is changing,” said Nick Fox of Housing Units.

“When we started the project in early 2008 it was surprisingly difficult to find out how to turn a business green and develop recycling programmes – but there’s now masses of help and advice on how to achieve some amazing recycling figures.

“It was tough to get everybody engaged at first, but the pace with which the team is embracing recycling has gathered momentum so that just about everybody now sees the importance.

“Our security team has a ‘skip-cop’ detail who have been trained to recognise what’s rubbish and what’s not, and if the wrong materials are found in the wrong bins then they put them in the right place and endeavour to investigate where the system has gone wrong.