Throwing away a resource that is worth £9 million a year seems unimaginable, but this is exactly what is happening to the 600,000 tonnes of glass bottles from UK pubs, clubs, hotels, restaurants and cafes. This is enough glass to fill Wembley Stadium one and half times and most of these ‘‘empties‘‘, end up in landfill sites.

In order to encourage more collections to recycle this valuable material, WRAP (the Waste & Resources Action Programme) is today launching a toolkit providing guidance on how to successfully establish collections from Licensed Retail Premises (LREs). Primarily, the toolkit is aimed at existing providers of recycling or trade waste collection services such as waste management companies and local authorities. However, entrepreneurs, community groups and other companies looking to establish a new glass recycling collection service will also find it very helpful. Similarly, licensed premises can use the toolkit to establish what effect glass recycling could have on the bottom line in terms of waste disposal costs.

Evidence suggests that there is room in this market for existing providers of recycling or trade waste collection services, such as local authorities with capacity on their collection rounds, as well as entrepreneurs who are interested in exploring an opportunity. The contents of the toolkit reflect this market scope and include sections such as:


the practicalities - how the licensed retail trade is structured, how to recruit LREs into the business, what can be collected and how
the service - how to overcome the barriers and sell the benefits of glass recycling as well as produce relevant contracts
the economics - how many LREs are needed to make the business viable, what quality of glass should be collected and who can it be sold ont
Industry feedback on the toolkit has been positive. Emma Rees, Office Manager for glass recycling company, ECT Commercial, comments: "Overall the guide is fantastic and we really could have done with something like this when we were first setting up our own LRE glass recycling.?