Efficient, Effective and Eco-friendly Care for Care Homes

Using Recycling Pods from waste management specialist, Waste King, is making TLC Group’s care homes demonstrably more eco-friendly. Since beginning to use the recycling Pods in April 2024, TLC has reduced its carbon footprint across all its sites by 50% – and it can show that 98% of all its bulk waste in now recycled.

The solution is also proving popular with TLC staff because they can securely lock away waste – preventing any unauthorised access to the waste. The staff are also discovering that Recycling Pods are a highly effective way to store all types of waste in a more professional manner.

TLC Group (TLC) provides nursing, dementia, residential and respite care through care homes in North London, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Surrey. It’s accredited as an ‘Investors in People’ platinum organisation and its homes are registered and regulated by the Care Quality Commission.

Like many care home organisations, TLC had used skips to collect its homes’ waste. However, it wasn’t keen on local residents putting items into the skips that didn’t originate from the care homes – and it didn’t want bulk waste to be visible in skips that were on its sites.

Searching for a more efficient and sensitive way of storing waste as well as having this waste removed, TLC discovered Waste King’s Recycling Pods. It realised these Pods present a more professional and ‘tasteful’ solution to storing and disposing of waste – not least residents’ clothing and other personal items which, when put into a skip, could remain visible to others and, thus, in some, sensitive, circumstances could cause distress to family members.

After completing a waste management consultation with TLC, Waste King supplied nine Pods in various TLC locations – with the first of these Pods being installed in April 2024. Waste King is also providing its ‘man-in-a-van’ services for each of TLC’s care homes, as and when this service is required.

Waste King’s managing director, Glenn Currie, commented, “Skips are a popular solution to collecting waste but they can be problematic if you’re going to put items such as mattresses, fridges and upholstery in them. Now it’s using Recycling Pods, TLC is saving money by having one price for efficient and effective waste management at all its homes – and it’s saving time by contracting with one supplier.

Waste King’s in-depth monitoring and reporting suite reports on weights, waste streams and collections and then analyses all the sites and waste disposal methods – identifying such things as why rubbish has increased in some locations or why areas are frequently left with rubbish. Each month, Waste King discusses these findings with each site’s designated recycling champion to increase the efficiency of the waste management process.

“We aim to offer our clients value for money and we meet their needs through understanding those needs as a result of engaging in excellent communications with them,” he added. “Our monitoring and reporting enables traceability and accountability of every movement of waste material from the point of collection to its destination.”