After a 72 hour wait and some gentle nagging on Twitter, I have received a reply:

Mr Tyldesley,

Thank you for your email with regards to the skip at Welcome Break Peartree.

Recycling and waste segregation is important to Welcome Break and therefore any reports of waste being mis-handled is looked into immediately.  As you state Welcome Break has been shortlisted for the National Recycling Awards due to all the work that we have done to help reduce the amount of waste that we as a company send to landfill.

The skip was brought on to site for the purpose of removing old equipment from site that we are unable to sent for co-mingled recycling, as such the skip was never intended to be used for day to day waste.
The other waste that you noticed in the skip has been removed and placed in the correct waste disposal points whether it be for recycling or to general waste. I would like to point out that where possible some of our waste goes for Refuse Derived Fuels (RDF) rather than landfill, enabling
some Welcome Breaks sites to commit to ZERO to landfill.

The Christmas tree that you noticed in the skip has also been removed and given to a local charity.

All our staff at Peartree have been spoken to ensure that they are all aware of the correct procedures for segregating waste, as it appears that on this occasion it did not happen.

I hope that the above fills you with confidence that recycling is important to Welcome Break and we will always strive to ensure that our waste is handled correctly and where possible all recyclable material is extracted leaving only what material we are unable to recycle.

Regards

Natalie

Am I filled with confidence?

Hmm…

We called in at Welcome Break Services on the Peartree Roundabout outside Oxford yesterday and, as you do, had a look in their skip.

The contents included a very interesting mix of old shop stock, which could have been donated to charity to do someone a good turn and raise a bit of money for a good cause, and a large quantity of waste that could have been recycled or, in the case of the old plastic cooking oil containers, reused.

I just assumed that this was just another example of someone not being bothered or the usual story of a corporate giving the environment a lower priority than their core business.

However, it turns out that Welcome Break Services have just this week been nominated for a Recycler of the Year Award so I think it is only fair that they be held accountable to a higher standard given that their PR Department will surely be making much of their green credentials in the light of this.

I believe in giving people the chance to redeem themselves so here is the email I have sent to Welcome Break this morning. Let’s see how they respond…

Dear Sir
I called in at Peartree Services yesterday to break my journey from Southampton home to Northamptonshire.

My attention was drawn to a rubbish skip at the rear of the building, mainly because there was a plastic Christmas tree sticking out of it, which is eye-catching in June.

On closer inspection, the skip was filled with a wide range of rubbish and was obviously a “general waste” skip whose contents were destined to go to landfill.

Among the rubbish was a significant quantity of shop stock which, if it was indeed surplus to requirements, could have been donated to charity. There was also a
large amount of recyclable waste which, despite the presence of recycling bins close by on the site, had been dumped in the general waste skip, presumably
because staff had been told to do so or could not be bothered to sort it.

This is particularly disappointing performance for a company that has just been shortlisted for the Retail/Service Sector Recycler of the Year Award and is presumably
happy to attract kudos for its green credentials.

Obviously dealing with your waste appropriately is the correct thing to do from both environmental and ethical standpoints. Given the corporate preoccupation with
“maximising shareholder value” correct separation of rubbish from recyclables reduces in a cost saving as Landfill Tax charges are reduced and recyclablematerial
in bulk is a valuable commodity.

Yours faithfully

Peter Tyldesley