Waste Management Workshops

Next Event: Flats Recycling Webinar – 23rd January 2025

Flats Recycling: why we should close refuse chutes

Our next event is a webinar based around finding ways to get more recycling from flats and why we should close refuse chutes, taking place online, 23rd January 2025, at 11am.

Finding reliable ways to get more recycling from flats is an increasing need for Councils and landlords, particularly as the deadline to have recycling and food waste collections in place for all residential buildings is now not much more than a year away. We’ve run several on-site workshops over the summer with the kind assistance of the teams at Hounslow and Sheffield, and we look forward to sharing what we learned from these in our next online session.

We’ll be joined by several experienced panellists who’ll cover the fire safety and recycling justifications for closing chutes, as well as how this has worked out operationally and what everyone wants to know – how residents have responded.

or contact us direct

Closing Refuse Chutes – Is this really as difficult as it sounds?

With the current focus on Building Safety, many landlords are looking for a way to decommission chutes, but of course the immediate questions always arise: How will we get the agreement of residents? Won’t they just leave bags on the landings? Well, the good news is that this process has already been completed by a number of landlords very successfully.

That’s great, and we didn’t just tell you—we showed you! We were pleased to have offered the opportunity for you to join several events taking place over the past few months, where you could learn from their experience and develop a framework for implementing this on your own buildings.

metroSTOR workshops help develop a roadmap that will enable you to:

Assess the current waste management situation on any communal residential block.
Analyse impacts on all relevant stakeholders, including residents and the wider community.
Define root causes of all issues identified and develop a comprehensive project brief.
Identify the potential investment and management options available to fulfil this brief.
Compare in terms of the economic, environmental and social returns on capital investment.
Establish a stakeholder engagement process to guarantee the success of your project.

Watch the video to find out more.

Sheffield Workshop

Held at Deer Park View in Sheffield, our October workshop provided delegates with the opportunity to witness the successful transformation of waste and recycling infrastructure across several high-rise blocks as part of Sheffield City Council’s Building Safety programme. Attendees saw first-hand the positive impact on the community and the environment, heard Council officers share valuable lessons learned, and had the chance to network with others tackling similar challenges.

The day featured talks from Helen Scott, Estates & Environmental Service Manager at Sheffield Council, and Dean Butterworth, Housing Professional, along with a site visit to Deer Park View to see the effects of decommissioned waste chutes in high-rise blocks. Watch the recap and catch up on the presentations below.

Past Waste Management Webinars

Following the Grenfell tragedy, the London Borough of Hounslow closed refuse chutes in their residential buildings to reduce fire risks, address anti-social behaviour, and improve waste management. Rolled out in 2021, the programme has resulted in cleaner buildings, increased recycling rates, and reduced workloads for caretakers, thanks to careful planning, resident engagement, and stakeholder collaboration.

This webinar explored the key strategies behind Hounslow’s success, including encouraging behavioural change, the role of enforcement, and opportunities to repurpose disused chutes. Join metroSTOR’s Nigel Deacon and guest speakers Andrea Tidy, Estate Services Manager and Tom McCarthy, Estates Team Leader, to discover practical lessons and insights for driving impactful waste management changes in your community.

Read Summary and Transcript

Recognising the shared challenges of waste management across communal buildings, we expanded our discussions beyond high-rise estates to include a broader range of properties. From our initial sessions, we identified the need for a step-by-step roadmap—a universal guide to assess challenges, engage stakeholders, and implement effective solutions.

Over several months, we collaborated with various organisations to test and refine this roadmap through real-world projects. In this webinar, we shared our progress, discussed the roadmap’s key stages, including site assessments, stakeholder analysis, root cause identification, options appraisals, and business case development, and invited feedback from attendees.

The session provided practical tools and templates, highlighted insights from case studies, and explored strategies for creating cleaner, safer, and more sustainable communal spaces.

Read Summary

View all of our webinars here.