Environmental impacts – Waste
Stepping up the pace
For every business, the true cost of waste is far higher than the cost of disposing of it. Wasted energy, raw materials, consumables, handling costs, management time and potential legal liabilities all make an impact.
Objectives and statistics |
Policy objective:Reducing waste production and disposal of wastes to landfill. Measuring our progress:• The total weight of paper recycled went up by 64 per cent • 13 sites checked during a waste assessment were found to be compliant with the Duty of Care regulations |
Office recycling
In 2006, we stepped up our office recycling, supplementing existing paper recycling facilities, introducing plastic recycling and continuing to recycle all toner cartridges. Following its successful launch at our 15 Westferry Circus head office, mandatory double-sided printing was extended to our depots, supporting our business objective to reduce paper use by 15 per cent by the end of 2006.
We have also been reviewing our procurement of electrical equipment and management of waste electrical equipment in preparation for the new Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment regulations.
Licensed to carry waste
Tube Lines is a registered waste carrier and 134 of our depots, offices and other facilities are registered with the Environment Agency as producers of hazardous waste, from computers and fluorescent tubes to oily rags, as required by the Hazardous Waste regulations.
Projects waste assessment
Because most of our construction waste is created by our sub-contractors, we carried out an assessment of waste at sites which form part of our capital investment programme. We visited 13 sites in two weeks to check that waste was being dealt with appropriately and in line with Duty of Care regulations. All sites were found to be compliant, with adequate storage, segregation, collection, disposal and transfer documentation. As we move more towards directly engaging sub-contractors ourselves, we will have more direct control of project waste in future.
Paper recycling
Paper recycling went from strength to strength in 2006. “We recycled 64 per cent more paper,” reports Rachelle Huggins of DSM which, among other activities, collects operational waste from stations and depots.
This massive increase is due to a combination of an expansion in the number of sites involved in recycling and the introduction of the free afternoon newspapers. “We were able to collect more paper in 2006 because we added more sites to our recycling scheme and installed more dedicated bins. Approximately 95 per cent of our stations are now involved in some form of recycling,” says John Ford, Ambience and Development Manager. “The afternoon newspapers caused a noticeable increase in the volumes of discarded paper on our trains and stations and we expanded our activities to match. The amount of waste paper we pick up each day has doubled, from two and a half to five tonnes a day and at times it can be over seven.”
£24,900 from waste paper sold for recycling was raised in the period under review. Following the launch of Tube Lines' Community Support Fund in late 2006, £7,950 has supplemented employees’ efforts to raise money for good causes.
News in brief |
- We donated two van-loads of branches and vegetation removed from the trackside to an undergraduate in need of materials for her final art project, which was displayed at an art school degree show in 2006. She received a first class degree. - In 2006 we donated 71 outdated Tube Lines mobile phones and blackberries to fonesforsafety, which turns second-hand mobile phones into reconfigured “999 only” phone alarms for victims of domestic violence in the UK. fonesforsafety forms part of the Coordinated Community Response to domestic abuse and is supported by The Home Office, The Body Shop and Comic Relief. |
Case Study |
Making scrap payCash raised from recycling scrap rail has covered the cost of removing it from the trackside “The aim is to clear the whole open section of track of scrap, and to make this work self-financing.”Tony Kingsmill, acting Chargehand, Finchley Central |
