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Wednesday 16 Oct 2024

From bin to cup: Network Rail tracks the journey of a coffee cup from its station bins as part of new recycling effort to divert 100% of all waste from landfill

Region & Route:

Southern

| Southern: Kent

| Southern: Sussex

• Network Rail’s partnership with The Green Block has already boosted recycling rates from just 13% to 91% at London Victoria over the past three years
• Ambition is now to reach 95% and divert 100% of station waste from landfill
• Installation of 60 bins at London Victoria during National Recycling Week is enabling passengers to follow the journey of a coffee cup as it’s recycled
• Industry-first sponsorship opportunity could create a new revenue stream for the railway

Network Rail has teamed up with The Green Block to launch a new initiative aimed at boosting its station recycling rates to 95% and diverting 100% of waste from landfill.

Since 2020, Network Rail has been trialling The Green Block’s patented and innovative Mobile Segregation Unit (MSU) which manually segregates waste on site into its recyclable commodities whilst capturing accurate and digital data, once rubbish from trains, public bins and retailers in stations has been collected.

The MSU is based at London Victoria station and has enabled Network Rail to recycle over 7,000 tonnes of waste from London Victoria since the trial began. Over a 12-month period, this recycling technology is expected to reduce Network Rail’s carbon footprint at London Victoria by 121 tonnes – the equivalent weight of a blue whale.

The success of the trial has seen two further MSUs installed at London Bridge and London Waterloo stations which will recycle waste from across Network Rail’s London managed stations**. It is estimated 1,500 coffee cups are segregated, baled and recycled per day across these three stations alone. This is approximately 42,000 coffee cups every four weeks.

Since December 2023, the increased recycling rates has also generated Network Rail £10,000, money earnt from recycled waste from across its London managed stations which is being reinvested back into the railway. It has also created 18 local and sustainable jobs for the local community.

During National Recycling Week (14-18 October), Network Rail has rolled out 60 new 1,100 litre bins at London Victoria station which all have a QR code for passengers to follow the journey of their coffee cup as it is recycled. These new bins also provide a potential industry-first sponsorship opportunity to create a commercial benefit that both increases revenue for the railway and reduces the cost of managing waste to the taxpayer.

Working closely with train operators and retailers, all waste producers have coded bins or bags so all rubbish and recycling is weighed and tracked in real time using proprietary software called Plaza, so the industry knows exactly how much waste is being generated, who is producing it and exactly where it ends up.

From April 2025, it will be mandatory for all organisations to digitally track and keep real-time records of where the waste comes from and how and when it is disposed. This initiative means Network Rail is compliant five years early.

Karin Skelton, Network Rail’s Sustainability Programme Manager, said: “We run almost a third of Britain's rail services in the Southern Region - that's 700 million passenger journeys every year, each one with their own individual story, each one relying on us.

“We’ve got a fantastic opportunity to do our job in a way that minimises our impact on the environment, and we’re absolutely committed to being cleaner, greener and more socially responsible.

“We produce thousands of tonnes of waste every year at our big London stations, so The Green Block partnership means we’ve been able to significantly improve our recycling rates to over 90%. But we’re committed to doing even more and are aiming to reach 95%, as well as eradicating the waste we send to landfill. The best thing about this project is that our passengers don’t need to change a thing.”

Josh Katz, General Manager of the MSU division at The Green Block (TGB), said: “At TGB we are committed to delivering safe and sustainable solutions. We are delighted to be supporting Network Rail in their sustainability journey, with the introduction of the globally-recognised Mobile Segregation Unit (MSU) and its real-time data tracking through the Plaza system, leading the way within the transportation industry."