Firms that stop sending waste to landfill can verify their claim through a new certification from the Carbon Trust.
Certification will be awarded to companies that prove they have diverted non-hazardous waste from landfill by reducing the amount they produce, finding ways to reuse materials, increasing recycling or sending it for incineration, the trust said.
More than 30 million tonnes of waste is generated in the UK every year, and more than a quarter of this is sent to landfill, according to the business advice organisation.
One of the first companies to achieve the new certification was lock manufacturer ASSA ABLOY.
‘The certification provides a framework for improving operational efficiency and, at the same time, securing tangible economic benefits such as a reduction in disposal costs and increased revenues from the sale of recyclable materials,’ the trust said.
The zero waste to landfill standard is aligned with the methodology of the trust’s existing benchmark for waste, it added. Companies that have achieved this benchmark include ABP Food Group; Barts Health NHS Trust; Coca Cola; Foreign & Commonwealth Office; Investec; PwC; Royal Mail Selfridges and Whitbread Wyke Farms.
The trust has published guidance on the new standard here.
