Promoting a Circular Economy – Recycle your old Janitorial Machinery

Plastic waste – we could go on and on with statistics about how much the UK sends to landfill (around 14 million tonnes), equating to 1.8 BILLION elephants or 1,386 Eiffel Towers. Now that’s a lot of waste, but we have written this to bring awareness to how simple it is to recycle your old janitorial machinery with Wessex and not send it to landfill.

The DEFRA, or The Department for Environmental Food and Rural Affairs, states that The recycling rate for England was 44.7% which seems like a fantastic figure, and it is. However, we feel that more needs to be done to combat waste and promote a circular economy.

What is a Circular Economy?

In short, a circular economy is a set of core principles derived from designing out the waste and pollution involved with simply throwing goods in general waste, keeping products and materials in use, and regenerating natural systems.

One example of this is plastics (what we are focusing on here) – redundant janitorial machinery can be sent back to us; even if you didn’t buy it through us. We will then arrange for them to be disassembled, categorised into their components, and distributed to numerous industry sectors for re-use. So, for example, plastics might be used in construction materials, road ballast, or even the manufacturing of motor vehicles! This is just one of the ways that we demonstrate our commitment to sustainability and our environment.

Another example is the Numatic ReFlo vacuum – this powerful vacuum is made from 75% recycled plastics that are residual waste from the motoring industry when manufacturing car bumpers.

So what are we doing about it?

The Wessex team have partnered with companies across the UK to collect, disassemble, recycle, and repurpose your old janitorial machinery. Some companies may ask you to send them your old machinery, clean it up, and resell it as “recycled” at a profit to them, and this is a great idea, but what happens when the time comes to dispose of the machine again? It will more than likely end up in a landfill, so we found this approach to be flawed and short-sighted and not something that encompasses what we stand for, promoting a sustainable future for all.

So, we’re not interested in profits; we’re interested in the sustainability of your old machinery and ensuring that the machines are fully recycled. You can send us your old Janirotial machinery from any manufacturer, and we will process this and recycle it.

How do I do it, and how will I know where it all goes?

Complete the below form, send us your old machinery, and we take it from there. Every machine that you send us will be sorted, labelled and tracked. Then, following the internal processing of the machine, we will send you a waste transfer document and a recycling report.

This recycling report will give you a comprehensive raw material breakdown and a residue statement of any material that cannot be fully recycled. Material that can not be reused in manufacturing or fully recycled is often repurposed and used for items such as road ballast/ building blocks, but our report will show you where this all goes.

By choosing to take this journey with Wessex, you promote a circular economy, ensuring your business is responsibly and sustainably disposing of waste and caring for the environment. All of this will also help you with any industry certifications such as Bcorp that you may be looking to achieve.

What machinery can you recycle?

The short answer is pretty much anything. If you have a Numatic vacuum, PackVac, Nilfisk scrubber dryers, Kartcher machinery, and more or less any other janitorial machines that are no longer in service, we can deal with them for you and ensure they do not end up in a landfill, even if you didn’t buy them through us! 

All machines that come through Wessex are treated the same way, and you will be issued comprehensive reports on all elements of the recycling and reusing process.