Waste not want not

"We’ve made fantastic progress this year and heading in the right direction – but there’s still more to do!" Nigel Basey, Chair of the Group’s waste committee

What we did

Both Argos and Homebase have achieved great success in combining to reduce the Group’s landfill waste by a massive 85% over the last five years and to increase the amount of waste recycled by over 50% in the same period.

Why we did it

Sending waste to landfill is more expensive than recycling – and has negative environmental consequences. Landfill sites produce greenhouse gases, including methane, and also take up valuable land space.

How we did it

Back in 2007, Homebase launched its ‘putting waste in place’ programme to improve recycling rates and reduce waste sent to landfill from our stores. A ‘ban the bin’ challenge this year led to a 60% reduction in waste to landfill year-on-year. Over the last five years, Homebase has reduced its landfill from 34,400 tonnes to 2,900 tonnes, a cut of over 90%!

The Argos ‘Cares’ programme encourages colleagues to segregate waste at store and prevent it from going to landfill thus minimising the impact on the environment. This year, regular auditing of stores waste and the introduction of league tables to create competition amongst stores has helped to drive improvements. Argos has reduced its landfill over the last five years from 14,200 tonnes to 4,400 tonnes, a cut of 69%.

In our colleague engagement survey for 2010/11 we asked our colleagues whether they were clear on what they need to do in their job to be environmentally responsible. The results are a testimony to the success of our campaigns with over 90% of Argos and Homebase colleagues responding positively.