Pump Up the Volume

Currently among the 10 largest post-consumer materials recyclers in the United Kingdom, Taunton, England-based Viridor recently has been through a dramatic growth spurt to get there.

Viridor’s humble origins trace back to 1956, when a company called Haul Waste Ltd. began as a liquid waste haulage business in the southwest of England, according to current Viridor Resource Management (VRM) Director Herman van der Meij.

Acquired by the Exeter, U.K.-based Pennon Group in 1993 (and later renamed Viridor), today’s Viridor Resource Management operates several dozen recycling plants and waste transfer stations throughout the United Kingdom.
 

Several Branches
After its single-location, niche origins in 1956, Haul Waste Ltd. eventually “started moving into wider waste collection and disposal operations and subsequently into recycling and power generation,” van der Meij says.

After that firm’s acquisition by the Pennon Group and subsequent renaming to Viridor, “through growth and acquisition, Viridor has developed into one of the U.K.’s leading recycling, renewable power and waste management companies,” he says.

“I joined the company when Viridor acquired Grosvenor Waste Management in 2007,” he continues. Van der Meij adds that Pennon Group describes the current mission of VRM as “selling quality recyclates to markets in the U.K. and across the globe.”

Van der Meij himself has recycling roots that trace to his childhood. “Recycling is in my blood, being a fourth-generation family member from a Dutch paper, plastics and metals merchant trading business.”

A timeline of Pennon Group and Viridor growth and investments (avaialble at www.pennon-group.co.uk/pennon/en/aboutus/ghistory) describes the hectic pace of activity that van der Meij has become accustomed to at Viridor.

“Viridor is now at the forefront of investment in vital infrastructure, delivering high levels of recycling and recovery and essential waste treatment services for a broad range of public and private sector customers,” says van der Meij, adding, “In 2010 we were pleased to be named as U.K. Recycling and Waste Management Business of the Year.”

The company has been structured, van der Meij says, to handle a wide range of materials safely and responsibly. “We provide the full range of recycling and waste services, including advanced materials recycling, glass and plastics reprocessing, composting, mechanical and biological treatment, waste-to-energy, transport, collection and safe and efficient landfill disposal.”

VRM takes considerable measures to ensure the safety of its more than 3,000 employees, van der Meij says. “Health and safety is of crucial importance to Viridor and the [recycling] sector,” he comments. “The more times you handle and sort any material, whether at curbside or inside a building, the more attention you have to pay to the systems and kit involved to ensure the safety of those involved. Any process with vehicles, machinery and people involved carries a risk, and it is our responsibility to effectively manage and reduce that risk. Nothing is more important than ensuring that our employees arrive at, and leave, their workplace in a safe and healthy way.”
 

Spanning the Island
VRM’s fleet of collection trucks and network of recycling plants now spreads throughout England and into Scotland and Wales. The company operates 26 material recovery facilities (MRFs), 19 organics recycling facilities and more than 80 residential recycling drop-off sites.

“Viridor also produced 750,000 megawatt hours of renewable power at 37 operating renewable power plants, including three energy-from-waste facilities,” van der Meij adds.

Herman van der Meij

The sizable network of trucks and facilities accumulated by Viridor—often through acquisition—has resulted in a parallel growth in secondary commodity tonnages handled. “In 2010, VRM traded 1.7 million metric tons of material,” van der Meij notes. “Viridor as a whole recycled 2.4 million metric tons, including organics and aggregates,” he adds.

The company sources its material in a variety of ways, with a key source of supply being residential material resulting from contracts with government jurisdictions. “We buy and collect from customers across the U.K., ranging from 25-year integrated contracts with the public sector through to spot market deals for specific materials,” van der Meij says.

The Viridor website (www.viridor.co.uk) contains several press releases announcing long-term agreements with town councils, such as those reached with the South London Waste Partnership and Glasgow City Council in December 2011.

Such arrangements provide some of the reasons van der Meij is pleased with VRM’s chances of maintaining forward momentum. “Viridor remains ambitious to help its customers from both public and private sectors recycle and recover more,” van der Meij comments. “Last year, 46 percent of our profits came from those parts of the main business. Our services and the support that VRM provides are set up to [help us to further] build on that over the next few years,” he adds.

“The development, implementation and management of our long-term marketing and sales strategy has been pretty unique,” van der Meij says. “This helps us manage the risks, quality, finance and logistics involved in placing our products in some extremely demanding U.K. and international markets, giving our customers and buyers the assurance they require,” he adds.

Such arrangements also can present challenges. Van der Meij says that in the three parts of the U.K. where the company operates (England, Scotland and Wales), VRM encounters different government philosophies.

“We have some interesting differences in the approaches of the U.K. countries with regard to waste and recycling,” he comments. “The coming years will tell as to whether the less prescriptive approach of England will result in higher recycling and recovery levels than the different regimes in Wales and Scotland.”

Whatever trends affect the collection of residential recyclables in the United Kingdom, van der Meij says Viridor Resource Management is positioned to play a large role.
 

Reasons for Optimism
Having spent most of his adult life in the recycling industry, van der Meij is keenly aware of the fluctuating value of secondary commodities. What’s more, the economy in Western Europe has been providing a wider challenge to recyclers there. “The economic climate remains challenging,” van der Meij says. Still, the VRM director sees several reasons to be optimistic about the future of the company and the overall recycling sector.

“As we recently saw with the birth of the 7 billionth human, the world population keeps growing and the emerging countries and markets create strong demands for raw materials,” he notes. “We have to adapt and realize we need to be ahead of these changes by investing in people and technology to improve the recycling and recovery industry we are in.”

The “End of Waste” regulations or criteria in the European Union that have begun to more clearly identify scrap materials as commodities rather than waste provide another reason for optimism, though van der Meij notes that recyclers who sort and process commingled materials have a stake in how those criteria are ultimately defined.

“The forthcoming (and recent) End of Waste Regulations and associated criteria for paper and glass (and other materials), and the subsequent verification requirements, will affect us all in our sector,” he comments. “It’s important that these help, rather than hinder, our industry to recycle more of these materials and that they are based on sound science and a practicable approach.”

Regarding these criteria and the EU’s overall Waste Framework Directive, van der Meij says several issues are of importance to Viridor. “These include a hoped-for pragmatic outcome on the commingled versus pre-segregated collections position in the U.K., how much benefit will come from the revised Duty of Care to help improve C&I (commercial and industrial) recycling and recovery rates, extended producer responsibility, bio-waste measures and many others.”

By no means are VRM’s leaders waiting passively to see where events will lead, van der Meij says. “To me, lessons learned in life and business are more important than any formal education,” he comments. “The most important thing is a keen awareness of how our business and the markets that we serve operate, from bottom to top.”

Customer service is another factor to the company’s success, van der Meij adds. “Equally important is recognizing your customers’ requirements and being able to meet and exceed these through thick and thin. Working with each other instead of against each other will already be a huge step in the right direction to make our industry even more a professional one,” he remarks.

As well, Viridor Resource Management relies on its people, van der Meij says. “Coming from a strong family business background,” he continues, “I believe that good teamwork is a vital element to ensure you can maintain a position as a market frontrunner, which we at VRM aim to be.”

Based on these fundamentals, van der Meij says he is optimistic that VRM can continue to grow and solidify its position in the U.K. recycling market.

“My philosophy for business remains simple—stay loyal to your customers, focusing on maximizing recycling opportunities while remaining open to how our markets are operating at any given time,” van der Meij says. “My grandfather and father always said, ‘Always keep your promise, as what comes around goes around.’”

The author is editorial director of the Recycling Today Media Group and can be contacted at btaylor@gie.net. This feature first ran in the January/February issue of Recycling Today Global Edition, a sister publication to Recycling Today.