What do babies and shopping centres have in common? They both produce waste – continuously. Someone has to clean up that waste, a necessary but thankless job. Like a caring parent Smart Waste takes care of the waste at shopping centres so that they are clean and healthy.
While customers go in through the front door Smart Waste goes in through the back door. This is the receiving yard where the goods go in and the waste comes out. It is a working area, always busy and noisy and smells of diesel and equipment. Many top retailers regard the deliveries as more important than the tills. It is what goes into a store which determines profitability rather than what goes out.
Fortunately, Smart Waste’s management spent many years around shopping centres and have a visceral connection with retail. Shopping centres are in their blood. It is therefore not surprising Smart Waste provides waste management services to more than 60 shopping centres countrywide.
Define what is more valuable, recycling with an incentive or simply adding to a landfill
Shopping centres vary in size from small convenience centres through neighbourhood centres to large regional malls. All centres have customers and customers produce waste – continuously. As do the retailers, all their boxes and packaging, the offcuts from the bakery, deli, butchery and fish shop have to be taken out of the store.
Somewhere in the delivery yard Smart Waste is stationed, ready to clean up this waste, on site. We do it by sorting through the waste stream, extracting everything that could be recycled and making sure only the smallest amount of waste has to end in the landfill. The general waste is then compressed to ensure it is compacted before being collected by a waste truck, which we arrange.
So how do we recycle? All recyclable material like cardboard, paper, plastics, tetra pak, metal and glass is then according to type and quality. Once we have enough for a full load, these recyclables are collected and taken away to be re-engineered into new materials. Smart Waste keeps a record of the waste and recyclables and at the end of the month sends a report together with income from the recyclables. Yes, shopping centres get cash back on recycling.
Waste is not all the same and just by looking in the wheelie bins we can say whether the shopping centre is big or small and located in an affluent area or not. Wherever it is located the centre produces a range of waste, some from the customers; including food waste and diapers. The waste removal system has to be geared to removing this waste and different systems are used for each centre, it’s all about custom building a recycling plan that matches the infrastructure and can cost effectively deliver a workable solution.
From sorting to compacting, Smart Waste thrives on adding recycling value
Understanding the waste stream, how to separate it and extract the maximum value is the skill, like building our own recycling puzzle. Cleaning and sorting other peoples waste is dirty, smelly work. It is not for everyone but we thrive on it. Some of our clients have been with Smart Waste for over 10 years, including Northgate, Southgate, Cradlestone Mall and Chatsworth Centre.
Recycling must form part of every business, in our world they include some biggest landlords: Broll. Liberty Life, Pareto and IPIC. Every business has a responsibility to recycle cleanly and with a reputable partner, do the research and see who will give you the best value for money when building your family natural future through recycling.
From industrial parks, factories and offices to wine estates and restaurants. Each has its own character and challenges. None, however, has as much recycling variety as a shopping centre. They are a living, breathing mass of humanity engaged in buying, selling and creating waste is just like that bundle of joy. Messy, yes, but we still love it.
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