COVID-19's impact on the waste and recycling industry

Our director of recycling, Paul Rendle-Barnes, was recently interviewed by Materials Recycling World about the effects that Coronavirus is having on the business, demand and the messages we need to get to Government.

If you missed the original article, catch up below...

What impact is the current situation having on the business?

Indigo Environmental has implemented all safeguarding measures in line with Government guidelines – to protect our colleagues, suppliers and customers. So far, our operations are all functioning normally as – despite the disruption to the economy – there is still an exceptional need for recycling and processing across the UK.

We specialise in closed loop and re-use solutions for industry, manufacturing and local authorities. In these sectors, waste will always be created – and recycling solutions required – so right now our support is more important than ever.

Our industry has been granted ‘key worker status’ by the Government – something we are immensely proud of. So, for us, it’s business as usual – but with increased cleaning and colleague protection protocols.

For manufacturers/suppliers of equipment/materials, what impact has Covid-19 had on demand? How does this vary by sector? What knock on effect has this had?

Over the last few weeks, we’ve had several sectors feeding additional plastic waste into our plants to be recycled. For the benefit of the UK recycling community, we’re happy to help – to ensure the process runs smoothly.

While the automotive field has seen a slowdown – due to supplier shutdowns, the food waste sector is as busy as ever, with predictions from distributors that they will need to increase capacity to counter panic-buying.

At Indigo we are ready and prepared to take on additional volume of materials, in order to keep things running successfully for our clients and network.

Are there any messages manufacturers/suppliers need to get to government?

At a time like this, communication is key and – as with most companies – we appreciate as much notice as possible, to allow our organisation to plan and react in line with Government recommendations.

Our people are our priority, and we will continue to put their – and their family’s – safety first, across all our sites and operations.