UK skip hire companies aid in effort to increase sustainability

According to a recent report, Southampton has made considerable efforts in fighting CO2 emissions and is on track to become one of the top three sustainable cities in the UK by 2021. Southampton already has a thriving economy and will likely become one of the country’s economic powerhouses by 2021, so residents have reasons to be happy. 

According to the study conducted by law firm Irwin Mitchell and the Centre for Economic & Business Research, carbon emissions have been dropping by 6.3% since 2017, which had led to an increase in air quality and made Southampton one of the healthiest places to live. 

To achieve this, authorities have launched a number of awareness and infrastructure projects, aimed at reducing the number of vehicles on the road and popularising other forms of transport, such as walking and cycling:

Apart from reducing CO2 emissions, which are a crucial part of improving air quality, Southampton is also taking great strides to reduce waste. Southampton's waste management efforts top the list of UK cities and authorities are hoping to encourage citizens to recycle more. 

At present, the recycling rate in Southampton is only 25%, whereas Bournemouth recycles almost half their waste. If Southampton wants to become Britain’s most sustainable cities, then waste management and recycling need to be tackled as seriously as carbon emissions. 

Authorities say that, in the past months, residents have been more receptive of recycling and that after they introduced 12 new plastic recycling banks, an additional four tonnes of plastic were recycled. However, this is only a temporary solution to the problem and if Southampton really wants to become the UK's most sustainable city, it needs to collaborate with local authorities to build a large-scale recycling facility that can hold all the waste that the kerbside can’t. 

Citizens cite the lack of recycling facilities as the primary reason why they do not recycle. According to local environmental campaigners, Southampton residents are aware of the dangers of improper waste management and would like to recycle more, but they don’t have the means to do so. In the future, if the city follows the same ascending path it is on now, that could change and Southampton could pass the neighbouring cities of Eastleigh and Fareham. 

Like the rest of the UK, Southampton is in danger of running out of landfill space in the event of a no-deal Brexit. In an internal document prepared by the Southampton City Council, authorities warned that the current situation "could result in recycling banks and waste transfer stations becoming full and potentially closing". The UK exports three million tonnes of domestic waste to the EU for recycling and refuse-derived fuels, but port delays could put more pressure on landfills and quite literally bury the country in rubbish. 

The solution starts at a local level, where authorities should offer residents the right infrastructure to dispose of household waste responsibly. By recycling, waste no longer ends up in landfills. Instead, it is recycled, which solves several problems:

Many people would actually want to recycle more, but they’re not sure which items can be recycled and which item belongs where. This is why, in addition to sorting bins, authorities in Southampton also want to introduce more skips, which collect more types of waste, and then professionals sort them according to local guidelines. This way, even waste such as electricals and building materials are compacted and shredded. Even when an item cannot be recycled, skip hire companies  avoid sending it to the landfill, and instead try to prepare it for treatment.