Cherwell - A Zero Waste to Landfill Supplier

Cherwell’s sustainability programme

Our objective of sending zero waste to landfill is just one aspect of our wider commitment to working in a sustainable fashion and a specific element within our resource conservation and waste management programme.

1. Reduce our waste generation per employee by 25% through the deployment of comprehensive resource reduction and reuse initiatives; and
2. Of the residual waste generated, a minimum 75% is recycled by careful management of waste streams, with the remainder sent for energy production and zero waste to landfill.

What does Zero Waste to landfill mean?

Zero waste to landfill, as the term implies, requires that 100% of waste generated by an organisation is diverted away from landfill, and is alternatively reused, recycled, composted, or sent to energy recovery.

Why is it important?

Quite simply, landfill as a means for dealing with waste is extremely damaging to the environment.

Toxins produced by substances sent to landfill, especially items containing hazardous substances like lead, solvents, acids for example, can leach into the soil and groundwater and cause widespread environmental contamination.

In addition, when general waste breaks down in landfill leachate or, in essence contaminated water, is produced and can easily filter into the surrounding land and waterways.

When organic material such as food scraps and green waste is put into landfill, this ultimately leads to the production of methane, a greenhouse gas that is some twenty-five times more potent than carbon dioxide.

Although nowadays there are programmes in place within landfill sites to help mitigate some of the damaging side effects, the current use of landfill poses continuing threats to the environment.

Zero Waste to Landfill Certification

When implementing a Zero Waste to Landfill strategy it is not simply enough to rely on your waste contractor not to go to landfill. It is important have a full audit trail to demonstrate that your waste is being treated correctly and to prove that none of it ends up in landfill. This is why we asked Valpak, one of the leading certification agencies, to undertake a full independent and rigorous audit of our operations.

What this means for customers?

Apart from demonstrating our deep commitment to sustainability and environment conservation as a responsible supplier partner, reduced waste and increased recycling will generally mean more efficient operations, allowing you as the customer to benefit further from competitive pricing.

More information

If you would like to learn more about our sustainability programme please contact us.