ENGLISH’S ACHIEVES ZERO WASTE TO LANDFILL STATUS

English’s are very proud to announce that we are now a Zero Waste Restaurant! Not only were we one of the first Brighton restaurants to recycle but now, with the fantastic support of Paper Round Brighton we’ve achieved our Zero Waste goal, which has been over a year in the planning.
Paper Round take it one step further, not only do they divert our waste from landfill, they promote something called ‘closed loop recycling’. Essentially, this is the process of turning recycling materials into a new product, ideally that can be recycled again and again. Some materials like glass and plastic bottles can be recycled almost indefinitely. Other waste products like organics can be treated to extract renewable energy and fertilizer for growing more food.

In the case of English’s, Paper Round Brighton worked closely with our Restaurant Manager, Andre & Head Chef Yuri to understand what they were throwing away and how best to take it off site.

Five recyclable streams were identified; Card, Mixed Recycling, Glass, Food and General Waste. In order to guarantee high quality recycling Paper Round had to work with Yuri to increase the number of bins in the kitchen to allow for more source separation. Posters and staff training were provided before launch to make sure it got off to the best start possible.

Using a daily kerbside bag collection, Paper Round operate a colour-coded system for each waste stream where full bags are left out overnight to be collected to their local site for sorting. Paper Round’s drivers record quantities of each stream and this data is then inputted into their in-house system, generating accurate recycling reports viewable through their online portal. Recycling performance is converted into environmental metrics on things like Carbon footprint, trees saved and recycling rate per employee.

English’s are off to a flying start with recycling rates in excess of 80%, a great result for any company but even more impressive for a restaurant (so we’ve been told!)

Paper Round Brighton was started as a Friends of the Earth project in 1988, specifically to provide high quality environmental service to offices in London. Since then they have grown in to a one-stop-shop for all waste streams including but not limited to cardboard, paper, cans, plastics, coffee cups, food, coffee grounds, glass, IT, batteries, toners through to secure shredding and one-off clearances.

They still hold true to their Friends of the Earth routes by promoting the waste hierarchy, reduce, reuse recycle to all of their customers, they actively campaign on sustainability issues and even supply recycled products back to customers as part of the circular economy.
What happens with English’s waste?

General Waste:

General Waste travels only 10 miles from English’s to a Waste to Energy plant. Once there it’s efficiently incinerated to release energy for the national grid.

Mixed Recycling:

All of English’s mixed recycling (cans, plastics, mixed paper etc.) is sent to Paper Round’s own 80,000 square foot mixed recycling facility (MRF). Once there it is separated into individual material types, baled or bulked and sent off to their chosen materials refiners to be turned back into source material for making new products.

Food Waste:

Food waste is sent for Anaerobic Digestion, a controlled process involving heat, pressure and bacteria in a sealed container, which accelerates food decomposition, allows the efficient harvesting of methane for renewable energy and produces fertilizer for growing UK crops.

Cardboard:

All the card collected from English’s is baled and transported to a state of the art paper mill in Kent where it is repurposed back into high quantity paper and cardboard materials. Much of the cardboard generated from this mill is supplied to the likes of Amazon and predominantly reused in the UK.

For more information on Brighton Paper Round, please visit their website here.