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Tech-enabled waste management services in the UK and North America
Reconomy delivers tech-enabled waste management services across the UK and North America. We support more than 23,000 businesses, manage over 5 million tonnes of waste every year, and divert 98.5% of that material from landfill through recycling and recovery. Our services are delivered through our specialist brands, backed by a network of over 1,000 fully compliant regional supply chain partners providing extensive coverage across both regions.
Waste management services we provide
Environmental compliance expertise at scale
Commercial waste services
With 30 years of experience in business waste management and recycling, Reconomy's specialist brands provide comprehensive commercial waste collection and disposal services for businesses of all sizes and sectors. Whether you need scheduled collections, ad hoc removals, or a fully managed waste programme, our nationwide network of supply chain partners ensures reliable, compliant service. The outcome: reduced waste costs, improved recycling rates, and clear reporting to support your sustainability targets.
Hazardous
Hazardous waste management
Hazardous waste handling in the UK requires specialist knowledge, trained personnel, and compliant processes at every stage. Reconomy's specialist brands provide fully managed hazardous waste services for businesses that produce technical or hazardous materials, covering collection, packaging, documentation, treatment, and compliant disposal end to end. Whether you need support for electrical equipment, chemicals, asbestos, or clinical waste, we help you manage the full hazardous waste journey with the right waste transfer documentation and duty of care records. The result is less administrative burden, reduced compliance risk, and greater confidence that your waste is handled in line with current UK environmental and safety requirements.
Office
Office recycling
Reconomy's specialist brands help thousands of businesses every year build effective office recycling programmes, from setting up clearly labelled segregation stations to scheduling collections around your operational needs. Our service covers paper, cardboard, plastics, glass, food waste, and mixed recyclables. The result is less waste to general disposal, lower collection costs, and measurable progress against your organisation's sustainability and zero waste commitments.
Skip hire
Skip hire
Reconomy's specialist brands supply commercial skip hire for businesses, contractors, and construction sites across the UK, with standard skips from 2 yards up to 16 yards and larger roll-on, roll-off (RoRo) containers for high-volume projects. For more complex requirements, we also offer wait and load skips, enclosed skips, hazardous waste skips, and caged vehicles. Every skip hire is backed by compliant disposal and waste transfer documentation, giving you full duty of care coverage.
Single stream
Single-stream recycling
Single-stream recycling simplifies the process for businesses by allowing multiple recyclable materials to be collected together and sorted downstream. Through our specialist brands, we handle plastic, glass, paper, food waste, metal, wood, cardboard, and a range of niche waste streams. This approach reduces the number of collections needed, lowers operational disruption, and helps businesses improve recycling rates while meeting sustainability targets and Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) obligations.
Soil sampling
Soil sampling
Reconomy's specialist brands provide fully managed soil sampling and classification services for construction, infrastructure, and development projects across the UK. From initial site assessment and material sampling through to laboratory classification and compliant disposal, our teams handle the process end to end. Accurate soil classification reduces the risk of incorrect disposal, helps projects stay on programme, and ensures compliance with waste management legislation and site waste management plan requirements.
Wheelie bins
Wheelie bin hire
Reconomy's specialist brands supply commercial wheelie bin hire for businesses requiring a flexible, cost-effective solution for general waste and recycling collections. Options include standard 240-litre wheelie bins for smaller premises, larger 1100-litre bins for high-volume sites, and heavy-duty rear-end loader and FEL bins for industrial or commercial applications. Collections are scheduled to suit your operational requirements, with waste transfer documentation provided as standard to support duty of care compliance.Supporting better waste management with people, technology and insight
People-powered waste expertise
Reliable waste management is built on skilled people.
Across our Recycle Loop brands, experienced teams work alongside customers to ensure waste is managed safely, efficiently, and in line with regulatory requirements.
From operational staff and drivers to compliance specialists and waste management experts, our teams help businesses optimise waste processes, improve recycling performance, and maintain high service standards across every site.
Smart tools and digital waste insights
Technology plays an important role in helping businesses manage waste more effectively. Reconomy provides digital tools and platforms that give customers greater visibility of waste performance and environmental impact.
Key capabilities include:
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RecoTek, our innovation hub, supporting organisations in tracking waste data and ESG metrics
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Customer portals, online dashboards providing access to waste reports and compliance documentation
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Smartphone apps, tools for scheduling services, receiving alerts, and monitoring performance on the go
Together, these tools help businesses make more informed decisions about waste management and sustainability performance.
Dedicated customer support and access
Managing waste should be straightforward for businesses of any size. Reconomy provides easy access to waste management services and expert support through a combination of digital platforms and dedicated people.
Through our specialist brands, customers benefit from:
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Online customer portal, real-time access to waste data, reports, and compliance documentation
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Dedicated account management, expert guidance to optimise waste services and disposal solutions
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Online services, convenient scheduling, documentation access, and performance tracking
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Quote and support calls, fast, consultative access to tailored waste management solutions
This combination of digital capability and human expertise ensures customers always have visibility, control, and confidence in their waste management arrangements.
Circular economy and waste management
Effective waste management is just the beginning. To reduce environmental impact and unlock long-term value, businesses need to move beyond linear “take, make, dispose” thinking and adopt circular strategies that follow the waste hierarchy, prioritising prevention and reuse, then recycling and recovery, and only using disposal as a last resort.
When you improve how materials are handled, you can cut the amount of waste sent to landfill, lower emissions associated with extraction and processing, and support more efficient use of resources. Over time, this helps strengthen sustainability performance, improve recycling rates, and create measurable progress toward net-zero and circular economy goals.
Poor waste management has serious environmental consequences, starting with landfill. When waste isn’t separated, treated, or recovered properly, valuable resources are lost and more land is needed for landfill capacity. Landfill also produces greenhouse gases, including methane, and can pollute if leachate isn’t controlled. Poor collection and disposal increase transport emissions too, and contamination in recycling streams can send material to landfill that should have been recycled.
Poor waste management can also affect local ecosystems and communities. Mismanaged waste can lead to litter, odours, and pests, while hazardous or incorrectly handled materials may pose additional risks to soil and water quality. Even when waste is collected, lack of clear documentation and compliance controls can increase the chance of inappropriate treatment or disposal, undermining environmental protection and making it harder to track outcomes. Strengthening waste management processes helps protect the environment, supports regulatory compliance, and improves the quality of recovered materials for recycling and recovery.
For businesses, the environmental impact of poor waste management often shows up as higher disposal volumes, lower recycling performance, and greater operational disruption. Contamination in recycling streams, for example, can reduce the value of recovered materials and increase the likelihood of landfill. In contrast, better waste segregation, compliant treatment routes, and data-led reporting help organisations reduce landfill, improve resource recovery, and demonstrate measurable progress against sustainability goals.
Learn what the circular economy is and how it redefines waste as a resource, helping your organisation move beyond disposal towards regeneration, reuse, and smarter material flows.
Learn about the Circular Economy
Environmental benefits of the waste hierarchy
The waste hierarchy ranks waste treatment methods by environmental impact, from most preferred to least. Each stage delivers a different kind of benefit, and following the order matters as much as using each method correctly.
Prevention avoids waste before it’s created. It’s the most effective stage, since it removes the need for collection, transport and treatment altogether.
Re-use keeps products and materials in circulation without reprocessing, saving the energy and raw materials that would otherwise go into making something new.
Recycling turns waste back into raw material for new products, cutting demand for virgin resources and the emissions tied to extraction and manufacturing.
Recovery extracts value, usually energy, from waste that can’t be recycled, reducing what would otherwise go to landfill.
Disposal is the last resort. Landfill produces greenhouse gases including methane, and can pollute soil and water if not properly managed, which is why it sits at the bottom of the hierarchy rather than being treated as a default.
Businesses that move up the hierarchy see measurable results. Our work with Suzuki GB and ZSL shows what that looks like in practice, both significantly cut landfill volumes working with Reconomy’s specialist brands.
See our case StudiesWaste legislation and recycling guidance
Keeping up with changing waste legislation can be challenging. Reconomy helps businesses understand and prepare for regulatory changes through practical guidance and expert support.
DEFRA’s Simpler Recycling legislation for England
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has released guidance on the Simpler Recycling legislation, which launched on 31 March 2025. The legislation initially impacts businesses before also applying to households.
If you require additional support preparing for these changes, Reconomy can help. Our waste management solutions support a consistent and sustainable approach to recycling, helping organisations remain compliant and improve resource recovery.
Learn about Simpler RecyclingWorkplace recycling: Welsh businesses
Reconomy has published the Separated Waste Collections for Workplaces guide to help partners prepare for new workplace waste reforms. As part of Wales' Beyond Recycling strategy, the goal is to recycle 70% of waste by 2025 and achieve zero waste by 2050.
The guide outlines compliance requirements and highlights that violations can result in unlimited fines or civil sanctions.
Download our guide
Making waste management simple
Effective waste management starts with understanding how to improve circularity efforts. Reconomy plays an active role in education, delivering regular ‘Tool Box Talks’ to help businesses, organisations, and communities improve circularity and ultimately prevent waste.
Through practical guidance, training, and data-led insights, we help you understand:
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Segregation fundamentals, how waste segregation works (and what can’t be recycled) across key waste streams
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Recyclable materials, including food waste, glass waste, plastics, paper, and cardboard
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Rules and legislation, staying compliant with evolving UK and international regulations, such as DEFRA’s Simpler Recycling
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Improving recycling rates, using clear signage, tailored collections, and performance reporting
By educating employees, suppliers, and partners, we help build sustainable communities and embed circular economy thinking into everyday operations. Recycling education is a core part of our mission to help businesses move from waste disposal to resource recovery.
While Reconomy’s services are designed for businesses, the same waste hierarchy principles can help households reduce waste at home. Start with prevention: plan meals to cut food waste, choose products with less packaging, and repair or reuse items before replacing them. Next, focus on correct segregation, separating recyclables (such as paper, cardboard, glass, and plastics) and keeping them clean and dry to avoid contamination. If your area offers food waste collections, use them to divert organics from general waste. Finally, consider recovery options like donating unwanted goods, using refill schemes, and recycling bulky items through local collection points where available. Small changes, done consistently, can reduce landfill waste, improve recycling performance, and support a more circular approach to everyday living.
Related services
Explore the related services fulfilled through our specialised brands in the Recycle Loop,
Specialist site services
Through our specialist Recycle Loop brands, we deliver fully managed site welfare and equipment hire solutions for construction, housebuilding and infrastructure projects across the UK.
Arranging welfare units, accommodation and plant hire across multiple suppliers can be time-consuming and complex. Different compliance requirements, regional variations and operational pressures make procurement challenging, particularly on fast-track construction projects. That’s where we step in.
Recycling equipment
Our experienced team provides innovative and reliable waste recycling equipment for businesses across a wide range of sectors, and for of all sizes.
How you collect and contain your waste and recyclables is not just an aesthetic consideration. Storing waste and recyclables in suitable, secure conditions makes them safer, cleaner, and easier to handle and as such they can achieve their optimum value for recycling, reuse, or recovery.
Print Waste Management and Display Recycling Services
Our specialist teams provide cost-effective, compliant and innovative print waste recycling solutions that move materials up the waste hierarchy — prioritising reuse, recovery and renewable recycling routes over disposal.
Beyond day-to-day collections, we partner with businesses to deliver strategic transformation projects that improve profitability, productivity and long-term sustainability performance.
Aggregates supply
Our aggregates supply service is designed to support projects of all sizes, from local groundworks to complex, multi-site infrastructure developments. By combining access to regional supply with central coordination, we help reduce delays, manage costs, and support more sustainable construction outcomes.
FAQs: Waste management
Waste management is the process of collecting, transporting, treating and disposing of waste materials in a way that minimises environmental impact and supports compliance. It covers everything from general and recyclable waste to organic, hazardous and construction waste.
Waste management is essential for businesses of all sizes because it helps you handle waste safely and efficiently, reduce operational disruption and improve recycling performance. Using compliant collection and treatment routes cuts landfill waste, lowers disposal costs and strengthens reporting for sustainability and ESG goals.
Waste management covers general waste, recyclable waste such as paper, cardboard, plastics, glass and metals, organic waste like food waste, hazardous waste including chemicals, asbestos, clinical waste and certain electrical equipment, and construction and demolition waste such as soil, rubble and mixed site materials.
The waste hierarchy is the set of principles used to prioritise how waste is managed: Prevention, Re-use, Recycle, Recover and Dispose. Following this order helps divert as much material as possible from landfill and supports a more circular approach to resources.
Waste segregation means separating waste into different streams, such as general waste, recyclables, food waste and hazardous materials, at the point it’s created rather than sorting it later. Keeping streams separate and free from contamination protects recycling quality and ensures each material reaches the right treatment route. Our office recycling programmes are built around clearly labelled segregation stations designed for exactly this.
Hazardous waste is disposed of safely through a strict, documented process: packaged in specialist containers, collected by trained operatives, accompanied by compliant documentation such as a hazardous waste consignment note, and treated or disposed of at an approved facility. Every stage needs to be traceable, which is why duty of care records matter as much as the physical handling. Read more in our guide on how to improve hazardous waste management.
Through our Recycle Loop specialist brands, Reconomy provides a comprehensive range of waste management services, including commercial waste collection, business waste disposal, confidential waste disposal, office recycling, hazardous waste management and total waste management, tailored to the needs of different businesses, industries and communities.
A construction site waste management plan (SWMP) sets out how waste will be managed, reduced, reused and recycled throughout a construction project. It helps businesses understand what waste will be produced, how it will be handled and where it will go.
Smart waste management uses technology and data to improve how waste is handled, measured and reduced. This includes digital reporting, real time waste tracking, performance dashboards and data led insights.
Smart waste management uses technology and data to improve how waste is handled, measured, and reduced. This includes digital reporting, real-time waste tracking, performance dashboards, and data-led insights.
Recycling and composting both help divert waste from landfill, but work differently. Recycling collects materials like paper, cardboard, glass, plastics and metals for sorting and reprocessing into new products. Composting breaks down organic waste, such as food waste, into nutrient-rich compost through biological treatment rather than industrial reprocessing.
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