DJB Recycling enjoy post-lockdown expansion with new services

30th September 2020

DJB Recycling has expanded its operations during the Covid-19 pandemic and now offers glass recycling, food waste collection and skip hire for the first time.

The Sheffield-based waste management company was set up in 2005 and employs 28 staff. It has grown to serve a wide range of clients across the city, from small coffee shops to professional football clubs. DJB prides itself on the promise that none of the waste collected by its vehicles goes to landfill sites.

Managing director of DJB Recycling, Darren Bland, said: “We’re a local family-run company and even though we have expanded in recent years, that personal touch has remained with us. If any customer needs to contact us, they won’t be sent to a call centre – one of our staff will deal with their enquiry directly. That’s not something you always get with huge national companies.”

When the UK was put into lockdown in March and many of the businesses DJB serve were forced to close, the company had a decision to make. “We had a meeting and realised that we either needed to scale back our existing operations or take a deep breath and push forward by offering new services. We decided to do the latter and I’m very glad we did.”

With much of the population staying at home, DJB bought three new vehicles and started offering skip hire for the first time.

Darren adds: “As so many people were having clear-outs and generating enough waste to require a skip, we decided to start offering that service and it’s gone really well.

“It’s not something we plan to offer long-term as we mainly see ourselves as a waste management company, but it has allowed us to compensate for the business we lost during the lockdown and after restrictions were lifted because some premises we serve are still closed.”

DJB has also started offering food waste collection and a glass recycling service. The services are aimed at venues such as hotels, bars and restaurants which generate large amounts of food and glass waste. All glass is collected, taken to be decontaminated and moulded into new bottles or jars, while the food waste is turned into green energy.

The company is offering free glass collections for three months to customers if they sign up for one of their other services such as plastic, paper or cardboard collection.

Darren said: “Glass is one of the easiest materials to recycle and it can be recycled several times over, so it made sense for us to start offering a specific glass collection service.

“The food waste we collect is sent to an anaerobic digestor which breaks it down so it can be used to generate electricity or heating.”

“We launched the new service in July and considering that we expect it to mainly appeal to the hospitality industry which is still suffering from the effects of Covid, things are doing well. When things do recover properly, we are expecting demand to increase.”

To find out more about DJB Recycling and the services they offer, visit www.djbrecycling.co.uk.