Ask the Expert: Jo Gilroy (Head of Sustainability).

We asked our Sustainability expert ‘why is there no closed loop solution for packaging already on the market?’

Sustainability Expert – Jo Gilroy Twitter – @JoannaGilroy

This is a question which I am frequently asked by both customers and colleagues alike. The answer is due, in part, to the complicated way in which we handle our waste.  Often there are multiple stakeholders involved in the actual handling of waste material, from the end users who first discard the product, to the cleaners who collect it, facility managers, the actual waste carriers, the recyclers and so on.  It is only possible to begin to build a closed loop if you can bring all of these different stakeholders to the table and align everyone with a common objective.  Bunzl Catering Supplies’ (BCS) Waste to Resource partnership has begun this journey of aligning the right stakeholders, and the diagram below illustrates all the parties we will need to engage with in order to close the loop on disposable packaging.

Our Waste to Resource partnership with Closed Loop Environmental Solutions (CLES) and Simply Waste Solutions (SWS) aims to bring catering and hospitality operators an exclusive resource management and recycling solution which is credible, transparent and cost effective. See more about our partnership here.

How Waste Management Works