How is First Mile making recycling easier for companies in London?

UK company First Mile is helping city centre businesses to recycle more waste by making recycling easy and affordable. It currently services 15,000 businesses in 22 London boroughs, and has recently expanded to cover Birmingham. Using its own vehicle fleet, the company collects customers’ waste and provides a recycling report so that customers can keep track of their waste achievements. First Mile typically recycles 90% of the waste, sending the remaining 10% to waste-to-energy. Nothing is sent to landfill.

Customers don’t sign contracts, instead they simply order waste sacks and specify their preferred collection time. First Mile can also assess the company’s current waste output and make suggestions as to how they can recycle more for less. It also provides specialist services for electronic waste (WEEE), confidential paper, batteries, toners, food, and fluorescent tubes and light bulbs.

The First Mile recycling report gives a detailed 12-month summary of waste volumes collected and whether the waste was recycled, sent for anaerobic digestion or used for other waste-to-energy processes. A breakdown of the types of materials recycled is also included, as well as an overall recycling rate, volume of carbon emissions saved and the amount of energy produced.

The company donates £10 for every new customer and £2 per year for existing customers to the Small Steps charity. Small Steps raises funds to support people living on landfill sites around the world and improve their quality of life through both humanitarian aid and education.

First Mile has won a host of awards, including from the Guardian’s Small Business Network and letsrecycle.com, and has also been voted one of the top 25 Cleantech companies in Europe.

Keep up the good work, guys!