skip hire in stoke on trent

How The Pandemic Has Changed The Way We Look At Waste

Here in the UK we are very much known as a throwaway nation, much like the USA. With many items being single-use, and then ending up at a landfill. The Covid-19 pandemic has very much impacted the amount of waste that households are currently producing. We have seen a rise in the amount of general household waste, and a decrease in the use of recycling. The start of the pandemic also saw a great decline in skip hire, which we can safely say is no longer the case. So how has the pandemic affected how we dispose of our waste, and how can we improve this moving forward.

Single-Use In The Pandemic

The use of single-use items in the pandemic has vastly increased. This is mainly to help reduce the level of infection and reduce the risk of spreading. This means that there is very little that we can do about the number of masks and gloves that people are using, especially as they play a vital part in keeping our NHS safe from the virus. However, what about the single-use items that you may use around the home and office.
There are single-use items that we can look to reduce in our day to day life in order to bring the level of waste back to pre-covid levels. Look at swapping out those plastic bottles of water that you are drinking daily for a refillable bottle. This can reduce plastic waste that ends up in the landfill, along with recycling where possible. If your office currently does not have recycling facilities, look at championing this and getting it in place moving forward.

Food Waste

Throughout the pandemic, a number of councils stopped collecting food waste bins, with many still yet to start again. This means that food waste has been put into the general household waste, to eventually end up at the landfill. Where possible, why not invest in a compost bin. This can then turn into a great source of nutrition for your plants in the garden.

Skip Hire

As we mentioned, the start of the pandemic saw a vast decrease in the use of skip hire. This has unfortunately meant that the waste we normally see, that gets recycled, has been entering the general waste and arriving at landfill sites by the truckload.
We are glad to see that this is no longer the case and skip hire is booming more than ever. This allows the team here at Staffordshire Skip Hire to play their part in combating the level of waste and recycle where possible.

Moving Forward

Pre-pandemic, we saw the nation making great strides in reducing the waste that we produce. Sadly, the pandemic has put us right back where we started. Moving forward, we would like to encourage our customers to recycle wherever they possibly can, reduce the level of food waste that their household produces, and for the bigger projects, hire a skip and let us worry about the recycling!

For more information on where your waste goes when you put it in the skip read our blog: Where Does My Waste Go?. You can also get in touch with a member of our expert team today who will be happy to assist you with booking your skip hire.