Clearabee audit process for waste sites

On a typical day at Clearabee our in-house vehicles collect and transport over 300 tonnes of rubbish from homes and businesses across the country and in this blog we will talk about the checks we carry out at recycling and processing facilities once your rubbish leaves one of our vehicles and is transferred to a treatment facility for recycling.

If you book our man and van clearance service then we will be carrying out the clearance using our own vehicles, wherever you are in the country. Using our own vehicles means we can guarantee the highest levels of compliance, with waste tracked from collection until it arrives at the recycling facility. If you order a skip hire service from us then your waste will go directly to one of these facilities.

Onward Duty of Care – Waste Facilities & Processors

However our Duty of Care to you does not stop once your rubbish arrives at a processing facility (Waste Transfer Station). We take a very proactive hands on approach to managing all of the waste we collect. One of our biggest concerns is recycling and landfill diversion rates of the sites we transport the rubbish to, which means ensuring waste is reused or recycled wherever possible with almost nothing going to landfill. Currently over 95% of waste across the country is recycled or diverted from landfill with nearer 100% in London thanks to the range of facilities available.

To ensure the highest standards we audit all of the waste sites we use, which allows us to ensure as much waste as possible is diverted from landfill and that we are only taking rubbish to the best quality facilities. We rate sites based off a number of factors, including recycling and recovery rates, environmental management standards, health and safety and modern slavery risk.

The Tipping Process

Once we have decided which facility we are sending your waste to (based off the waste we have on board, the location of the facilities, recycling rates and other factors) the vehicle will be weighed on the weighbridge. It is then directed to a tipping bay where the waste will be tipped. When we have completed emptying the vehicle the recovery process will begin. Each waste stream is usually separated and then often sent to a specialist reprocessor, maximising recovery.

On Site Audit of Waste Facilities

Our most recent site inspections were two of the UK’s leading recovery facilities and where we send a lot of the waste we collect in London. At these sites 100% of the waste we deliver is diverted from landfill.

The process starts by understanding the Duty of Care the site has for the waste we bring in, which means looking at any onward processing. For example mattresses are diverted to a specialist re-processing facility in London, where as wood is graded and based off it’s quality is either repurposed and recycled entirely, or if it is low grade used for biomass to generate power in London.

Once this is complete we undertake a health and safety audit, looking at how the site is managed and how safe it is for our staff and vehicles to operate on site, and also for the sites employees. As we operate light goods vehicles (3.5t) we tip our vehicles away from the large plant and machinery in a specialist bay, which also means we’re not in the way of the largest HGV’s bringing waste in and out of the site.

Finally we have a look at the quality of the waste treatment processes to understand if the waste we deliver is as high as possible up the waste hierarchy, which means re-use, then recycling, followed by incineration and landfill. Due to the investment in high tech plant and machinery at these sites we could see how as much waste as possible was separated into distinct waste types and prepared for re-processing, with only residual waste used for refuse derived fuel, and nothing going to landfill.

We undertake this rigorous on site process at recycling facilities across the country to ensure your waste is always handled not only in a fully compliant manner, but also to the highest quality levels in the industry.

So whilst most customers are very impressed at how slick our rubbish collection operation is (we’re the most reviewed and highest rated national waste company on Trustpilot), there’s a lot more going on behind the scenes which ensures we deliver the highest possible total waste service to our customers even after we leave your home or business.