With new legislation driving greater accountability around waste separation and recycling, hospitality businesses are under increasing pressure to ensure their teams have the right knowledge and behaviours in place. Our recent on-site programme at Claridge’s hotel was designed to do exactly that – making recycling education practical, engaging, and lasting. In our experience, hospitality teams with better recycling education help to bring up the recycling rate in their venue, which as well as having sustainability benefits, also helps reduce waste management costs through decreasing the amount of waste that has to be sent to landfill.
That’s why we recently led a recycling education initiative at one of London's most iconic hotels – in partnership with Veolia UK and Westminster council - bringing practical waste management expertise directly to back-of-house teams.
A day of recycling education
Working alongside Westminster Council's Waste Education Team and lead by Veolia UK, we delivered an immersive on-site programme that included interactive workshops, a ‘waste walk’ and audit, and video education sessions. Each of these were tailored to the realities of a busy hotel kitchen environment, and the balancing act between efficiency and customer experience.
London’s luxury hospitality industry aims for nothing less than excellence – and Claridge’s is no exception. With a 200-year-old reputation to live up to, every member of staff – from housekeepers to concierges – is part of creating that five-star experience.
Visible waste issues can impact customer experience in any hospitality venue, let alone a historic luxury hotel. Claridge’s includes 190 rooms, two restaurants and three bars – and that means a lot of waste and recycling to manage.
With this in mind, the session introduced back-of-house and wider hotel staff to our some of our most popular waste management solutions for hotels, including the Slim Jim® Vented with Slim Jim® Dolly, which received standout feedback from the kitchen team as a genuine game-changer for their operations.
George, responsible for kitchen staff at Claridge’s, said: ‘The staff engaged really well and had some great feedback on the workshop. RCP’s expert-led implementation of recycling strategies and education is best-in-class.’
The results of the recycling workshop
Following the workshop, the recycling rate at Claridge’s has now increased from 58% to 77%, representing a 19-percentage-point increase.
To help improve recycling rates in future, the team are also looking at introducing revised labels on the recycling stations.
We’d like to give special thanks to Pedro Mira and Helder Pinheiro from the Claridge’s Back of House team for their trust in our solutions and for the opportunity to support this implementation.
And a big thank you to the Veolia UK team - Ambreesh Shadani Veolia, Janna Radwan and Rhianna Northwood - for their collaboration in delivering such a strong education initiative and helping raise awareness around the importance of recycling knowledge.
Build your own recycling knowledge with Recyclopedia
This collaboration is part of our broader commitment to supporting businesses in meeting their recycling goals. By combining tailored recycling solutions with on-the-ground expertise we’re working to drive real, measurable behavioural change.
At our new Recyclopedia hub, you can access best practice guidance and easy-to-use tools to help you optimise your waste management strategy. From legislation explainers to real-world success stories, it’s a one-stop shop to equip your team with actionable recycling knowledge.
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