We're a small independent hotel and want to make our business more environmentally friendly. All our cardboard and plastic is recycled, but a lot of glass is being thrown away with the general waste. How we can go about getting this collected and recycled?

The solutions

Barry Bolton, chairman, ACM Waste Management
For hotels and restaurants, glass can represent a very large part of the waste stream, and to have a modern and progressive waste management operation it's essential that it's collected and recycled properly. Glass is one of the few materials that's infinitely recyclable, so it's imperative that glass waste gets back into the packaging chain to be reused.

Glass is also very heavy, and as you're almost certainly being charged for the waste tonnage being sent to landfill, as well as its haulage cost, removing glass from the general waste stream is not only environmentally friendly but could also significantly reduce your waste disposal and transport costs.

Storing glass separately from general waste until it can be collected for recycling can cause a problem, but this can now be overcome with the use of specialist glass-crushing machines, which reduce the volume of glass waste to a fraction of its original size.

Hotels such as London's Grosvenor House, which has the largest conference and banqueting facilities in Europe, recycle hundreds of tonnes of glass waste. This has been achieved by using three glass-crushing machines and together with other recycling initiatives has reduced its compactor collections from 14 a week to just three. This has not only saved the hotel a lot of money but dramatically reduced its environmental impact, both through the reuse of glass and the huge reduction in transport emissions.

www.acmplc.com

Lucy Rees, waste minimisation officer, the Soil Association
A good starting point is the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), which has produced a dedicated toolkit to help all licensed retail establishments set up a glass bottle collection scheme. This will provide all the information you need and take you through the whole process. It can be downloaded free at www.wrap.org.uk, or call the WRAP freephone helpline number, 0808 100 2040.

Glass bottles can be recycled indefinitely as part of a simple but hugely beneficial process, as the structure doesn't deteriorate when reprocessed. In the case of bottles and jars, up to 80% of the total mixture can be made from reclaimed scrap glass, known as cullet.

A glass recycling collection scheme will be beneficial not only in terms of improving your environmental performance, it's also good for the long-term economic sustainability of your business. Landfill tax will double by 2009, a cost that waste collection companies will pass on to customers.

Remember that recycling is not limited to cardboard, paper, glass and aluminium cans. Many other items are now routinely recycled, including computers, printers, furniture and mobile phones.

To find out what services are available to your business, ring your local authority and ask to speak to the recycling officer. Local authority contact details are listed on the website www.recycle-more.co.uk in the "local authorities" section.

The Soil Association has also produced a free short guide, Making the Most of Waste in Organic Processing and Retailing, which is useful to all businesses. You can visit our website and look under the "free resources" heading, or call 0117 314 5185.

www.soilassociation.org/waste

Ismena Deacon, Director of Technical Services, ADSM
By putting in place procedures for recycling cardboard and plastic, you're already well on your way to achieving best practice for your hotel.

You're right to focus on glass as your next priority. The Waste & Resources Action Programme (www.wrap.org.uk) estimates that licensed premises dispose of 600,000 tonnes, or £9m-worth of glass every year and that 90% of this goes directly
to landfill. It also warns that landfill tax is set to double by 2009 and that this cost will be passed on directly to customers.

It's possible to save money by recycling glass, and your customers will also benefit from knowing they're supporting an environmentally responsible business. Start by contacting your local authority to see whether it provides a local service. It may charge for this, but you can weigh the costs against your current costs for general waste collection.

Contact a commercial company for a quote. You could consider grouping together with other local operators to benefit from the associated economies of scale.

If you have recycling facilities in your car park, make sure they don't get contaminated by other types of waste. Ensure your staff members are fully trained to segregate waste appropriately.

Failure to do so could result in heavy surcharges from the waste collector, or your recyclable waste not being collected. And remember, you're not permitted to dispose of your glass in public bottle banks.

www.adsm.com

Our experts answer your questions

Do you have a business issue you want to put before Caterer's panel of experts, drawn from all areas of the hospitality industry? E-mail: david.shrimpton@rbi.co.uk