New data suggests that just 40% of hospitality businesses recycle as part of their waste management efforts despite professing to want to be more sustainable.
According to waste management firm Biffa, 59% of SMEs in the industry consider sustainability to be “very important” to their business, while 27% rate it “quite important” or “important”.
However, only two in every five businesses in hospitality use a recycling service as part of their waste management strategy, compared with 47% of all SMEs.
Biffa said the results suggest that most SMEs are potentially still using general waste bins for all their business waste.
Operators cited lack of space for additional bins, cost, management and uncertainty about the right processes as the main reasons for not recycling.
Biffa’s COO Maxine Mayhew said: “It’s a tough time for many businesses. Most people running day to day operations are having to do more with less and make difficult decisions about the future of their business. It’s understandable that improvements to waste management can slip down the to-do list.”
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