Recent revisions to the Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011 have inspired printers to think more carefully about waste management, according to the company.
The regulations were recently revised to require businesses to formally confirm they have applied a ‘waste management hierarchy’, whereby options for waste disposal for all products are considered in a certain order.
Printers must now provide a declaration on waste transfer or consignment notes that this hierarchy has been applied. This, J&G believes, has led to a heightened awareness of intelligent waste disposal among a wider cross-section of printers.
The result, it said, was that printers are now more likely to contact a company with an established reputation for recycling.
"Telephone calls about this, together with visits to our website, have shown a significant increase since the introduction of the new regulations. Getting information about the final destination of waste and how it is recycled seems to be of particular interest and it’s the most popular section of our website," said John Haines, general manager at J&G.
Customer care manager Richard Spreadbury added: "Printers today are far more aware of their responsibilities than they’ve ever been. Printers have dragged themselves up from a really messy place 10 or 15 years ago to being really on top of their game today."
Now having to comply with more stringent waste disposal legislation has made more printers realise the cost benefits of recycling, said Spreadbury. Also a contributing factor is the rise of landfill costs for six consecutive years to £72 a tonne today, a figure set to rise again next year.
"Everybody is now watching every penny. The printers that we deal with want to make sure they’re getting the best value for money. They want to make sure the waste streams that cost them money are as clean as possible, but also that they’re making money from waste streams where possible," said Spreadbury.
He added: "Reducing costs isn’t always about saying 'we can do that for £10 less', it’s encouraging people to utilise storage containers the right way, for example, rather than throwing stuff into a container, so that they're not paying to transport air rather than materials."
J&G advises that the first step in applying a waste management hierarchy and reducing costs, is enlisting a waste management company to perform a waste audit.
