Tag Archives: waste

Waste King in cannabis clean-up

Posted on by
Reply

 

After two men were jailed for operating a cannabis factory at a house in Harrow, which produced an almost ‘industrial’ quantity of the class-B drug, the house’s landlord engaged Waste King, a specialist collections, clearance and recycling company based in Hemel Hempstead, to make it fit, once more, for human habitation.

 

Having discovered more than 500 cannabis plants growing in four rooms of the house earlier this year, police had destroyed the plants but the house’s owners still needed to turn the property from the ‘farm’ that it had become to a house. So they turned to Waste King.

 

Waste King’s operations director, Andy Cattigan, commented: “Waste King’s Environment Agency-licensed staff are skilled in both house and garden clearance – and this job provided elements of both!”

 

Waste King’s operatives are qualified to remove almost anything: including furniture, white goods, carpets and electronics – as well as green waste. They do all the loading, cleaning-up, take all the items away for recycling – and sweep up and ensure that everything is tidy before they leave.

 

“Waste King trucks tend to compact more waste than other waste companies due to their 16 cubic yard capacity,” Andy pointed out. “This means that Waste King can collect more junk at a more competitive rate.

   

“Moreover,” he added, “Waste King pledges to dispose of all waste properly and ethically – which, in this case at least, is probably a good thing.”

Wombling Waste King helps Haileybury archives

Posted on by
Reply

 

Despite so many of us being familiar with The Wombles – making good use of the things that other people throw away – as a society, we still throw away valuable parts of our community heritage.

 

Waste King, a specialist collections, clearance and recycling company based in Hemel Hempstead, recently received – as part of a house clearance contract – a wooden box containing some 45 glass negatives dating from around the time of the First World War. They were labelled and, on inspection appeared to show, among other things, ‘the Pyper boys’ and ‘Mr Reid’.

 

Waste King’s directors, Glenn Currie and Andy Cattigan, passed the box of negatives to Helen Little, who is a keen genealogist, to see if she could discover more of the history and significance of these photographs. Helen’s research produced a family tree for the Pypers.

 

Indeed, her discoveries led to three brothers (the Pypers) who had followed their father in being pupils at Haileybury, in Hertford Heath. A number of the photographs were obviously of Haileybury – and others could have been taken there.

 

The next step was to contact Haileybury to pursue the research, via the school’s Archivist, Toby Parker.

The Haileybury badge.

 

The negatives turned out to be of significant interest – not just in terms of the Pyper family (the three boys had been pupils at Haileybury from 1914 to 1919) and their achievements at school (and subsequently). In particular, there was a picture of a biplane coming in to land in ’20 acre field’ in the school’s grounds.

 

Toby explained that pupils from Haileybury played a key part in the formation of the Royal Flying Corps (later to become the RAF), since the first three RFC squadron commanders were all from Haileybury. Moreover, several of the leading aviators and air aces of those early years of flying visited the school.

 

This picture may well relate to one of these visits and, if so, could be of great significance to the school’s archives. Toby is continuing the research into these photos.

 

Waste King’s managing director, Glenn Currie, commented: ”These negatives – so nearly thrown into a landfill site – are merely the most recent example, for Waste King, of materials with a historical significance that are just thrown away in house and garage clearances.

 

“The negatives have added some valuable archive information to Haileybury, including opening a human interest window on the school at a distance of nearly 100 years. They’ve also thrown some light on Haileybury’s connection with the early days of powered flight and, in particular, the formation of the RFC/RAF.

 

“Of course, this story is merely the tip of an archivistic iceberg,” he added. “‘Wombling waste companies’, such as Waste King, are likely to unearth other ‘finds’ with similarly interesting stories.

 

“So, if you’re throwing away any documents or photos which could have a ‘history’, think twice before you consign them to landfill,” said Glenn. “Not only will you be helping the environment, you could also be contributing an otherwise unknown piece of information to our national historical heritage.”

Commercial customers increasingly opt for waste pods over skips

Posted on by
Reply

 

More than 40 commercial customers of Waste King – the specialist collection, clearance and recycling company based in Hemel Hempstead, UK – are have now switched from using skips to waste pods to segregate and remove their waste. Waste King’s managing director, Glenn Currie, explained: “When it comes to waste storage and then recycling as much of that waste as possible, the waste pod is highly efficient and effective. In addition, each pod provides privacy and excellent security – since it consists of one solid sheet of metal that’s difficult to break or climb.

 

“A waste pod acts as a solid barrier separating your waste from the outside world – and it can be customised in shape and size to each customer’s particular needs. Moreover, waste pods can be used for almost all types of waste including electrical waste, TVs and fridges, plasterboard, batteries, light bulbs and fluorescent tubes,” he continued.

 

“Customers from any industry are finding that waste pods are meeting their needs cost-effectively, compared with skips,” said Glenn. “Besides, installing a waste pod is both easy and free; Waste King’s licensed and insured operatives load all the waste, and there is a much greater chance of recycling all – or almost all – of the waste collected in the pod, so our customers become ‘greener’!”

 

“In addition to being the same size but appreciably cheaper than a skip, waste pods take up no more space than a car and fit more or less anywhere,” said Andy Cattigan, Waste King’s operations director. “Importantly, these containers are particularly helpful for customers wanting to get rid of such things as WEEE, plasterboard and hazardous waste – which can be difficult to dispose of safely and legally via other means.”

Comment: Reducing the use of skips has a number of benefits – it can be cheaper and more convenient for users, as well as being a lot more environmentally friendly – so it might be a positive thing for everyone if ‘the day of the waste pod’ has well and truly arrived.

Waste King doubles turnover in a year

Posted on by
Reply

 

Since moving to its current premises a couple of years ago, Waste King, the specialist collection, clearance and recycling company based in Hemel Hempstead, has now achieved the milestone of processing 10,000 orders. Of even more significance is that this growing number of orders has contributed to doubling the company’s turnover within a year.

 

“Despite the currently challenging economic climate – and while other companies are going out of business – Waste King has now broken the £1m turnover mark,” said Glenn Currie, Waste King’s managing director.

 

Waste King’s directors, Glenn Currie and Andy Cattigan, who formed the company in 2007 because they wanted to ‘do something to help the environment’, point to the company’s high degree of customer service as a major contributory factor to Waste King’s continuing success.

 

“We’ve found that, if we continue to give our customers a good service at a fair cost, then they come back time and again,” said Andy Cattigan. “We’re committed to making sure we offer all our customers the best prices along with our high level of customer service. We provide advice, guidance and competitive quotes for whatever service our customers need.”

 

Waste King offers a wide range of waste collection and recycling services for both domestic and commercial customers including: house, garage and garden clearance, rubbish removal, skip hire, shop and office clearance and refurbishments, waste electrical & electronic equipment (WEEE) collections, wait & load services, site waste management plans (SWMP) and confidential document destruction.

 

Glenn Currie commented: “In particular, because of their 16 cubic yard capacity, Waste King trucks can compact more waste than many other waste companies. So we can collect more junk at a better competitive rate.

 

“In addition, our waste removal services are up to 50 per cent cheaper than a skip – and Waste King’s trained and qualified operatives will do all the hard work for our customers – saving them time and money.”

Andy Cattigan (left) and Glenn Currie, of Waste King.

 

Comment: Waste King is obviously demonstrating the old Northern saying of ‘where there’s muck, there’s brass’ but it’s even more impressive to achieve this under today’s challenging economic conditions.

Fluorescent tube coffins prove a hit with Waste King customers

Posted on by
Reply

 

According to Waste King, a specialist collection, clearance and recycling company based in Hemel Hempstead, its fluorescent tube ‘coffins’ are proving attractive to customers who want to dispose of their spent tubes in the most environmentally friendly way.

 

Waste King’s operations director, Andy Cattigan, explained: “We offer customers a nine-step process to help them recycle their waste fluorescent tubes safely and efficiently.”

 

That nine-step process is:

1. A specially designed container is delivered to the customers for the safe collection and storage of spent lamps.

 

2. The container with the spent lamps is collected and taken to Waste King’s site for sorting, prior to being recycled.

 

3. The container is placed in the site storage area to await processing.

 

4. Waste King loads the lamps onto racked trolleys for processing in a crush and separation plant.

 

5. The plant is fully automatic and easy to operate. Its versatility allows processing of the various types and sizes of lamps, separating them into soda lime glass, aluminium end caps, lead glass /ferrous metal components and phosphor powder.

 

6. The crush and sieve plant operates at sub-pressure, thereby preventing mercury from being released into the environment as exhaust air (which is constantly discharged through the internal carbon filters).

 

7. The entire crush and separation plant is incorporated in a container in which a conveyor feeds the tubes to a hammer mill. The resulting combined fractions are air-conveyed through a separation tower, where the glass and metal are removed.

 

The glass and metal parts are then crushed further and air-conveyed to a second separation tower. Glass resulting from the sieving operation (after the first separation tower) is crushed further and air-conveyed through a third separation tower. The glass fragments, removed by the third separation tower, are fed to a rotary drum-feeder and transferred to a discharge conveyor to transfer the by-product out of the processing unit.

 

8. The air stream that has passed through the separation towers contains phosphor powder. This air stream passes through a cyclone, where the powder is collected in a distiller barrel, and then passes through two dust filters, where the remaining dust is removed and deposited in distiller barrels. The air stream then passes through four-carbon filters to remove any mercury vapour before passing into the atmosphere via a combined vent.

 

9. Recovered glass, aluminium and metals are sent to other companies for use as raw materials or for further processing.

 

The mercury powder is distilled on-site. The appropriate programme is selected and the distillation process begins.

 

A vacuum is applied to the unit. The after-combustion chamber and process chamber are then electronically heated.

 

Any organic content in the resulting vapour is oxidised in the after-combustion chamber and the mercury vapour is condensed, in a condenser, which is cooled by a chilled glycol refrigeration unit. The condensed mercury is removed from the collection chamber and stored before being despatched as a product.

 

Waste King’s managing director, Glenn Currie, said: “This may sound complex but it is extremely simple for the customer. Waste King supplies and delivers the fluorescent tube ‘coffin’, or ‘bulb recycling box’; the customer fills the box with spent tubes; we exchange the full box for an empty one and so the process continues. It really is that simple for our customers – and they have the satisfaction of knowing that they’re also helping to prevent polluting the environment with the toxic chemicals in the fluorescent tubes.”

 

Andy Cattigan and Glenn Currie, of Waste King.

Comment: Waste King claims that it aims to increase value for its customers and minimise the environmental impact of its activities. This initiative involving fluorescent tubes would seem to be in-keeping with this laudable and, apparently, achievable aim.

Camilla – and ‘Splash!’ – benefit from the Waste King treatment

Posted on by
Reply

Any impending visitor is enough to make anyone want to ‘tidy up a bit’ but, when that visitor is a member of the Royal Family, it’s an even more impelling reason to get rid of unsightly waste.

 

So, when HRH the Duchess of Cornwall was about to visit Medical Detection Dogs, a Milton Keynes-based charity which trains dogs to help people with life threatening health conditions, giving these people greater independence and a higher quality of life, the charity contacted Waste King to arrange for its operatives to collect some old, waste carpet tiles. According to Waste King’s managing director, Glenn Currie, the specialist collections, clearance and recycling company removed some eight yards of waste – including the carpet tiles – before the Duchess arrived to view the charity’s work.

 

A few days before visiting Milton Keynes, Waste King’s operatives – under contract to Two Four Studios, working on behalf of the ITV1 network – cleared the equivalent of six skip loads of waste as the ‘Splash!’ set was broken up. The TV show, hosted by Vernon Kay and Gabby Logan, saw Olympian Tom Daley teaching his sport to 15 celebrities, before they demonstrated their skills in a series of Saturday night live shows. With viewers voting for their favourites, the final saw Eddie, the Eagle, Edwards win in spectacular style.

 

Having worked with film and television companies since 2009, Waste King is adept at ensuring that the significant amounts of waste that are produced by this industry are disposed of in as ecologically and environmentally friendly a way as possible.

 

Waste King’s business ethos is to send the minimum amount of whatever it collects to landfill. It aims to reduce long term pollution to a minimum and thus help protect the environment for current and future generations. Currently, it guarantees to recycle – that is, not send to landfill – over 90 per cent of every load of waste it collects.

 

Waste King’s philosophy seems to be paying off – and attracting customers, especially businesses that want to demonstrate their ‘green’ credentials. Its turnover in its first year (2007) was under £100,000. By 2010, this had grown to £333,000 and, in 2012, it was £683,000. At a conservative estimate, turnover is set to more than double again by 2014 – to over £1.3m.

 

To meet this rise in demand from business customers, Waste King has significantly increased its provision of euro-bins and waste pods. These waste pods take up no more space than a car; can often be placed out of sight behind a hedge and are cheaper than a skip.

 

Waste can be segregated within these pods – so a customer using a waste pod can be demonstrably ‘greener’ by maximising the amount of waste materials that are recycled. Importantly, these containers are particularly helpful for customers wanting to get rid of such things as waste electrical equipment (WEEE), plasterboard and hazardous waste – which can be difficult to dispose of safely and legally via other means.

Waste King supplies waste pods for its ‘greener’ customers

Posted on by
Reply

With increasingly stringent regulations governing the disposal of such things as waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), plasterboard and hazardous waste, Waste King, the specialist collections, clearance and recycling company, is seeing increasing numbers of its corporate and care sector customers opting for ‘waste pods’ as a means of storing and disposing of their waste.

 

The waste pods fit more or less anywhere. They take up no more space than a car; can often be placed out of sight behind a hedge and, although they’re the same size, they’re cheaper than a skip. And, rather than just throw all the waste into a skip, waste can be segregated within these pods. This means that a customer using a waste pod can be demonstrably ‘greener’ by maximising the amount of waste materials that are recycled.

 

These containers are particularly helpful for customers wanting to get rid of such things as WEEE, plasterboard and hazardous waste – which can be difficult to dispose of safely and legally via other means. It’s cleaner as far as the environment is concerned; neater for the customer, and easier for Waste King to sort, segregate and dispose of the waste. After collecting the waste materials, Waste King takes them to its site. There, the waste is separated by hand or machinery to be recycled on the spot, or sent to the local waste transfer station – which results in a 99.54% recycling rate.

 

Just in case you’re wondering, legally, skips can’t contain:

  • Anything that’s hazardous to humans and to the environment. This includes: Asbestos; Oil; Petrol; Diesel; Vehicle tyres; Solvents; Any corrosive liquid; Explosive materials, and/or Gas cylinders (whether full, partially filled or empty)
  • Anything that could cause a health risk. This includes: Food waste, or Biological waste of any kind – including medical waste and human/ animal faeces; carcases
  • Anything containing any hazardous material which can cause health problems or injury when they’re processed for recycling. This includes: Florescent lighting tubes; Televisions; Computer monitors; Paints; Paint tins – whether full, partially filled or empty; Batteries; Fridges and/or Freezers
  • Anything that’s heavy and
  • Anything that can’t be processed effectively. This includes: large tree trunks and heavy aggregate (big rocks and chunks of concrete)
  • In addition, there are restrictions on the amount of stones, concrete and plasterboard that can be placed in a skip.

 

There are no such restrictions placed upon the waste that customers can put in a waste pod from Waste King.

 

Comment: This looks like another step forward for ‘greener’ waste disposal.

Hertfordshire businesses look to Euro-bins

Posted on by
Reply

Waste King, the specialist collections, clearance and recycling company, has reported a substantial increase so far this year in Hertfordshire-based businesses switching to its wheeled bins (known as Euro-bins).

 

Glenn Currie, Waste King’s managing director, explained: “These new customers tell us that, using Waste King’s Euro-bins, they’re apparently able to save around 30 per cent of their previous waste disposal costs. While we’ve been surprised at this sudden up-surge in demand for our Euro-bins, we’re naturally delighted to be able to sign-up new customers!”

 

Waste King can supply the cat, dog and rodent-resistant wheeled bins – sometimes known as Euro-bins or ‘wheelies’ – to commercial premises and residential homes. Euro-bins come in a variety of sizes – and Waste King undertakes to supply to an appropriate bin for each customer, taking into account their weekly or monthly waste generation. All Waste King bins are made to the European standards (EN840). They are heat, cold and chemically resistant – and, and since most of them are of the Dry Mixed Recycling (DMR) type, they can dramatically help customers increase the amount of waste that is recycled rather than going to landfill. Depending on a customer’s requirements, Waste King arranges weekly or fortnightly bin collections.

 

From the 240 litre ‘wheelie’ bin to a locakable 1100 litre bin, these bins can take general waste, including food waste and glass – but not hazardous waste.

 

 

“Our customers can use a bin for general waste but they’re also choosing to have a number of bins and then designating a bin to be solely for one type of waste – such as plastic or paper,” Glenn Currie said. “This increases the amount of their waste that can be recycled rather than sent to landfill – and that helps them to promote their ‘green’ credentials as a business.”

 

Comment: It’s always encouraging to see businesses taking steps to become ‘greener’ and recycle more of their waste so that the amount going to landfill reduces. However, as this story indicates, businesses don’t tend to act out of altruism (least of all towards the environment), The ‘30 per cent’ savings on previous waste disposal costs that they can achieve by using Waste King’s Euro-bins must be a strong incentive.

Waste King continues working with the media

Posted on by
Reply

Waste King, the specialist collections, clearance and recycling company, is continuing its working relationship with the film and television industry – most recently by carrying out some waste collections at Teddington Studios, in Middlesex, for Two Four Studios, working on behalf of the ITV1 network.

 

Waste King began its relationship with the industry in 2009, when it cleared up the various shooting locations used in making the comedy drama feature film, ‘Re-uniting the Rubins’ (Starring Timothy Spall, among others), after each day’s filming.

 

“Since then, we’ve continued working for film companies and film studios – ensuring that the significant amounts of waste that are produced by this industry are disposed of in as ecologically friendly a way as possible,” said Waste King’s managing director, Glenn Currie.

 

And, although Waste King is based in Hertfordshire and, up to now, has worked primarily in London, the Northern Home Counties and Surrey, it has recently expanded to collect waste as far afield as Yorkshire, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and even Aberdeen. This expansion of the company’s activities has come about because it has been chosen as a ‘national supplier’ to an environment-conscious major high street retailer.

 

Comment: There seem to be some emerging trends in the waste and recycling sector.

 

Increasingly, businesses seem to want to improve – and demonstrate that they are improving – their ‘green credentials’ (via using ways to collect and dispose of waste that can be measured and documented as being ‘green’).

 

Also, there’s a continuing move for businesses to consolidate relationships with waste and recycling specialists on a national, rather than merely local, basis.

The benefits of hoarding

Posted on by
Reply

The message of Christmas is that it’s better to give than to receive but, by a strange reverse logic, Christmas time tends to make us become hoarders – of all the stuff we receive as a result of others’ gifts.

 

Now comes news that hoarding is not so bad – and it might even help save the planet.

 

Waste King, the specialist collections, clearance and recycling company, has introduced steel waste hoarding containers for its regular customers. Not only is this a simpler, safer and more cost-efficient way of storing waste, Waste King also believes that it makes segregating the waste easier – thus enabling the maximum amount of waste to be recycled and keep any resulting landfill tax paid to a minimum.

 

Glenn Currie, Waste King’s managing director, explained: “When it comes to waste storage, using steel hoarding is an excellent choice – from both an environmental and a cost-effective perspective. These containers offer excellent security since they’re difficult to break or climb over. They offer excellent privacy since each ‘side’ of the hoarding comprises one solid sheet of metal.

 

“They meet safety standards since they act as a solid barrier separating the waste from the outside world – and they offer great flexibility, since they can be customised via a range of accessories to meet customers’ particular needs. The panels have also been proved able to withstand wind speeds of up to 50mph,” he added.

 

The company’s steel waste hoarding containers:

•           Won’t rot or degrade

•           Are made of high quality steel components and won’t burn

•           Are portable and, thus, re-usable – which can save customers’ money

•           Are ‘profiled’ and, so, deter graffiti artists and bill stickers

•           Can accommodate changes in direction and elevation

•           Can incorporate mechanical gate locks with unique entry codes

•           Can be provided in customers’ corporate colours, to enhance their professional image – and customers’ signage can be added, using special adhesive tape

 

“In addition – or as an alternative to – these steel waste hoarding containers, we provide a steel waste cage,” said Andy Cattigan, Waste King’s operations director.

 

“Fast, cost effective and easy to erect, these cages offer a similar excellent degree of security since they’re difficult to break or climb over – and, with the addition of trampoline sheeting, they can provide privacy, as well as separate customers’ waste from the outside world. Moreover, like the waste hoarding container panels, the cage can be customised. It won’t rot or burn; can be re-used, and deters the graffiti artist and bill stickers.

 

“Once customers have put waste materials into their cage or container, a Waste King team of Environment Agency-licensed operatives can come along to sort, clear and then dispose of all the items,” Cattigan explained. “It’s cleaner as far as the environment is concerned, neater for the customer and, frankly, easier for us to sort, segregate and dispose of the waste.”

 

A key claim of Waste King’s is that it guarantees to recycle 85 per cent of all the waste – whatever it is – that it collects. In reality, the figure is now well over 90 per cent – mainly thanks to Waste King’s meticulous waste segregation policy.