Grundon launches new service for hard to recycle items

Grundon Waste Management has launched RecyclePlus, a new recycling service for hard to recycle items.

Focusing on three waste streams that are traditionally more difficult to recycle – compostables, paper towels and coffee cups – Grundon says the service guarantees 100 per cent specialist recycling, providing FMs with a big tick in the box towards their sustainability targets.

Grundon’s Stephen Hill (pictured above) said: “While compostables such as plant-based cutlery and food trays have become increasingly popular – especially since the ban and restrictions on single-use plastics – the opportunities for correct disposal of these items aren’t widely available.

“The same applies to coffee cups and paper towels*, all three of these items need specialist reprocessing and, as a result, they all too often end up in general waste.

“RecyclePlus solves that problem by offering a disposal route for all three products via one simple collection service. Not only will facilities managers significantly increase their recycling rates, they will benefit by reducing the weight of their general waste collections and their waste data will be even more detailed, helping to both meet waste targets and shape future sustainability programmes.”

One of the first Grundon customers to embrace the new service is London’s Television Centre (TVC), which includes office accommodation as well as restaurants, cafés and bars. It already recycles coffee cups through Grundon and plans to take advantage of the wider range of services that RecyclePlus will offer.

Lee Duddy, Property Manager, TVC said: “This is a great opportunity to expand the number of waste streams that we will now be able to recycle. It will make it so much easier to manage and we’re delighted to be taking another step forward along our sustainability journey.”

TVC has been working with Grundon since December 2021 and last year, after increasing its recycling rates from 25 per cent to around 60 per cent, it was jointly awarded a prestigious 2024 International Green Apple Environment Award alongside together with Grundon and Principle Cleaning Services to mark its sustainability achievements. Since the beginning of 2025, the recycling rate has reached nearly 80 per cent.

Facilities managers have the option to decide if they want to adopt all three of the different waste streams or choose just one or two elements. Grundon provides colour-coded bins and waste sacks, with clear signage to demonstrate which items go into which section.

Once collected by one of Grundon’s latest fully electric zero emission vehicles, the waste will be sent for onward reprocessing at a number of specialist partners.

Compostables are sent to Envar, where a shredding and blending process produces a peat free high-quality PAS 100 compost; the paper hand towels are returned to Tork, where its innovative Tork PaperCircle^® recycling service ensures used towels are recycled into new tissue products. The cups are transported to James Cropper, one of only two facilities in the UK with the capability to recycle coffee cups, where its CupCycling^TM process turns the waste into paper.

*paper towel collection service only applies to Tork paper towels.