Commercial waste Leeds
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Businesses in Leeds benefit from a wide range of choices for their commercial waste collections. In this guide, we cover:
We compare prices for the following business waste collections in Leeds:
Leeds is home to a specialist commercial food waste collection company, Forge Waste & Recycling. They provide a weekly 240-litre bin collection service across Wakefield, Harrogate, and Leeds. The collected food waste is transported to a local anaerobic digestion facility, where it is converted into green biogas.
Leeds’s retail industry is clustered around Trinity Shopping Centre, located in the heart of the city. Local shops manage large volumes of cardboard waste by using local commercial cardboard collection services. Cardboard waste is a valuable resource enabling the largest shops in Leeds to benefit from waste rebates.
All the local and national commercial waste collection providers highlighted in this guide offer a variety of recycling services, including dry mixed recycling, glass and commercial food waste collections. These firms are legally obligated to minimise the volume of waste from Leeds’ businesses reaching landfill sites.
Institutions such as Leeds General Infirmary in the healthcare sector require the disposal of various types of hazardous waste. Specialist waste disposal companies, like Robowaste, provide environmentally friendly disposal services for a wide range of high-risk waste classifications.
Leeds has a growing microbrewery industry, including brands like Libations Rum, which sells craft liquor in glass bottles. Glass remains the most eco-friendly beverage packaging type, as commercial glass recycling services are widespread in Leeds.
The education sector in Leeds includes 320 schools and 5 universities. These institutions handle large volumes of sensitive student data on both paper and electronic devices. Local confidential waste providers offer secure disposal services.
Our experts are on hand to gather quotes from a range of trusted commercial waste collection providers in Leeds. Get bespoke quotes for the types and frequency of waste collection your business needs – start by entering your postcode above.
Our experts present the top six trusted local commercial waste providers in Leeds:
B&M Waste is a sustainable waste firm offering a certified carbon-neutral commercial waste collection service. B&M’s Leeds office is located in Stourton, where they provide tailored waste services to help local businesses save space, money, and carbon.
Forge is proud to offer waste collection services to a wide variety of businesses in Leeds. Founded in Leeds in 2010, Forge has recently joined the Biffa group. Their diverse recycling services even include coffee cup recycling to support local cafes in Leeds.
Sensa Waste provides commercial waste collection services in and around Leeds, West Yorkshire. Sensa Waste Solutions strives to make the recycling process both cost-effective and easy to manage for all business customers.
Yes Waste offers commercial skip hire services in Leeds, Huddersfield, and Wakefield. They will arrange for the disposal of various types of waste, including inert construction waste, wood, green waste, metals, plastics, and general commercial waste.
EnviroCraft offers commercial waste bins and collection services across some of England’s biggest cities. Envirocraft has a branch in Beeston, Leeds and provides a boutique waste service where each customer receives a dedicated account manager.
Premier Waste has an office on the Parkside Industrial Estate in Leeds and offers a full spectrum of waste services. It supports its clients through a program of “reduce, reuse and recycle” to help them meet environmental objectives and save money.
Leeds City Council provides a free domestic waste collection service for residents of Leeds.
However, the council’s free waste and recycling collections cannot be used to dispose of commercial waste.
Businesses in Leeds that want a waste collection service must rely on either local or national commercial waste providers operating in the city.
💡Here’s our guide to what is classified as commercial waste.
Businesses in Leeds that want to transport and dispose of their own waste can either use local council recycling centres or private waste transfer stations.
Here, we’ll summarise the best commercial waste disposal options in Leeds.
Leeds City Council operates two waste transfer stations, allowing local businesses to dispose of and recycle their waste. These stations are located at:
⚠️ Businesses transporting own waste must be registered with a waste carrier licence. Register a carrier licence here. The commercial recycling centres above accept payment by card at the time of disposal.
The two commercial recycling centres above do not accept heavy goods vehicles. We recommend that businesses in Leeds that must dispose of large quantities of waste instead rely on local private waste transfer stations, such as:
💡Nearby Bradford City Council also offers recycling centres that accept trade waste.
The table below shows the current commercial waste disposal costs at the Kirkstall and Seacroft waste transfer stations.
Commercial waste type | Price per tonne | Minimum price |
---|---|---|
Cardboard and paper | £20 | £20 |
Garden waste | £55 | £27 |
Hardcore and rubble | £51 | £26.20 |
General waste (excluding upholstered furniture) | £170 | £50 |
Plasterboard and gypsum | £100 | £36 |
Hardcore and rubble | £51 | £26.20 |
Scrap metal | £20 | £20 |
Wood and timber | £40 | £24 |
POPs (upholstered furniture only) | £340 | £34 |
POPs mixed (upholstered furniture including general waste) | £340 | £34 |
Fridge | £15 | N/A |
Televisions/monitors | £25 | N/A |
Fluorescent tubes | £3 | N/A |
WEEE/small domestic electricals | £145 | £45 |
Source: Leeds County Council – May 2024.
Leeds, a vibrant city in Yorkshire, hosts a diverse array of businesses, including thriving retail centres, bustling office complexes, advanced manufacturing sites, and innovative technology firms.
Effective waste management in Leeds is crucial, not only for maintaining environmental sustainability but also for ensuring public health and enhancing the city’s appeal as a place to invest and work.
In this section we’ll highlight the waste management services available in some of Leeds most important industries.
Leeds is home to The Otley Run, a two-and-a-half-mile pub crawl that starts at Woodies Ale House in Headingley and meanders towards the city centre.
The 15 pubs along the route, as well as others across Leeds, must manage significant amounts of glass and food waste. For more details on best practices in pub waste management, visit our complete guide to pub waste.
Leeds boasts historic venues like The Corn Exchange, which houses unique independent restaurants alongside popular food chains.
All restaurants in Leeds face the operational challenge of minimising food waste while offering ample portions and a variety of menu choices. Restaurants in Leeds are supported by local waste collection providers that offer specific restaurant waste solutions.
Leeds has a rich manufacturing heritage. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the city hosted large factories producing textiles, railway equipment, and heavy machinery.
Today, manufacturing in Leeds is more diverse, focusing on innovation in engineering, medical technology, and aerospace components. Local manufacturing firms must manage hazardous substances used in research and production.
Local firms typically partner with local hazardous waste providers that offer total waste solutions for the collection and disposal of manufacturing waste.
Leeds is home to Arla Foods’ dairy in Stourton, the UK’s largest milk, cheese, and yoghurt-producing facility.
Dairy processing plants generate effluent waste containing high levels of organic materials and nutrients. Dairy plants typically operate effluent treatment processes to reduce the environmental impact of waste before disposal.
Each year, Bramham Park, near Wetherby, hosts the Leeds Festival. The festival is jointly hosted with Reading and is the longest-running popular music festival in the UK. Bramham Park has a capacity of 75,000, meaning that waste management needs to be meticulously planned.
Specialist event waste management firms work with the Leeds Festival organisers to ensure waste is safely and efficiently collected and removed from the site in an environmentally friendly manner.
Leeds is emerging as a fast-growing city for corporate offices with its excellent connectivity from a major railway hub, well-developed road links, and an international airport.
With a growing number of businesses calling Yorkshire home, demand for office waste management is increasing. Get quotes for your office waste collections today.
The three largest commercial waste providers all offer services to businesses in Leeds, utilising their own local waste facilities. Our waste experts have summarised what each of these providers do in the Leeds area:
Biffa provides a commercial waste and recycling collection service throughout Yorkshire. In Leeds, Biffa also offers one-off skip deliveries and collections, asbestos materials disposal, and unplanned waste disposal services. Biffa operates a local transfer station in Holbeck and a landfill site in Dewsbury to provide these services.
Biffa partners and financially contributes to Make it Wild, a rewilding organisation. This partnership is part of their effort to offset carbon emissions associated with waste. Make it Wild is involved in tree-planting and pond-digging projects across Yorkshire.
Website: Biffa Yorkshire
Veolia has partnered with Leeds County Council to manage domestic waste throughout the city. As part of this contract, Veolia operates a Recycling and Energy Recovery Facility located in the Cross Green Industrial Estate in East Leeds.
Using the same facilities, Veoilia offers a range of commercial waste and recycling services across Leeds.
Website: Veoilia Leeds Recycling and Energy Recovery Facility.
Suez operates several sites in the Leeds area, which are integral to their nationwide network of commercial waste collection services. These facilities include:
Source: DEFRA public registers
The University of Leeds plays a pivotal role in the wider city of Leeds, being one of the largest employers and significantly contributing to the local economy.
The Leeds campus is located a mile north of the city centre in Woodhouse, hosting over 32,000 students. The University of Leeds has a comprehensive waste management plan focusing on sustainability and waste reduction.
Their approach includes detailed guidelines for recycling and disposing of various items, such as glass, plastics, electronics, food waste, and more.
Below, we have highlighted two great examples of innovative steps that the facilities team at the University of Leeds is taking to reduce waste.
Firstly, Leeds University operates a reuse scheme, allowing students and staff to offer and request surplus reusable items.
Reuse is the second point on the waste hierarchy and is a vital step in reducing the disposal of functioning electronic equipment, which also has the side benefit of saving students money.
The Facilities team has also produced this short video on how to prevent contamination of recycling bins on the Leeds campus.