British recycler ‘well placed’ after Covid

British waste management company, J&B Recycling, has spoken about how it has dealt with the challenges presented by the Covid-19 outbreak.

The company has operated throughout the Coronavirus, providing essential services to local authorities, care homes, schools, food retailers and distributors. During the first three months of the pandemic, the business suffered a 60% reduction in commercial tonnages.

As a gesture of goodwill and understanding for its non-essential businesses, J&B Recycling allowed commercial collection customers to suspend services and raised credits for the months of closure during the enforced UK lockdown, reducing collections from businesses by nearly 70%.

CEO Vikki Jackson-Smith, said: “We had to react quickly to review and implement our own contingency plans and we had ensure that we could support our customers, by putting their accounts on hold, whilst they dealt with their own issues. Everybody had to adjust and the last thing we wanted was to see our customers struggle.”

J&B Recycling reacted and reorganised the company to ensure over 95% of staff remained working throughout the lockdown.

The business implemented increased social distancing safety measures across all four sites, enforcing one-way systems in corridors, two metre social distancing markings at workstations and erecting plastic screens to protect staff in areas where this was not physically possible.

“All our staff have been extraordinary in their team efforts during these exceptional times and it makes me very proud of the people working here at J&B Recycling. Through being flexible and adapting to new working arrangements, we continued to provide an excellent service to our customers,” said Vikki.