Amberol play a part in the Barbican’s award winning recycling programme

Situated in the heart of the City of London, the Barbican Centre is the largest performing arts centre in Europe. Funded and run by the City of London Corporation, the centre is home to the London Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The varied schedule of events includes live music, dance, theatre, cinema and visual arts for an international audience.

The grade II listed building attracts over 1.4 million visitors annually and employs over 700 permanent and casual staff as well as over 250 contracted staff for cleaning, catering, security and car parking.

With such large numbers of visitors and staff using the venue for a diverse range of activities, keeping the public areas clean and litter free is both a challenge and a priority. Centre management are also committed to implementing an active recycling policy, ensuring that the centre minimises waste sent for landfill and the Barbican’s commercial event operations are fully compliant with the British Standard for a Sustainable Events Management System (BS 8901). This is the standard specifically aimed at the conference meetings industry for sustainable events.

Amberol’s products have played an important part in ensuring maximum sustainability. Well known in the horticultural industry for their commitment to producing environmentally friendly products, Zed Major, Facilities Manager at the Barbican actually discovered Amberol via the internet.

“After searching online, we came across Amberol’s website. We really liked the look of the recycling bins and so asked them to contact me,” explains Zed. “At the ensuing site visit, they brought samples of the bins we were interested in. This gave us a great opportunity to see how the bins worked in both the office and public areas. We liked what we saw and since then have established a great working relationship.”

The Barbican Centre uses a selection of Amberol’s ‘Slim Bin Recycle’ bins which are tall with a flat back designed to use minimum space with maximum capacity, holding up to 100 litres of refuse. The bin’s slim design means that it is ideal for corridors and walkways as it doesn’t impede footfall.

Three words that the Barbican Centre uses to describe Amberol:

1.Prompt

2.Professional

3.Sustainable

The Barbican Centre’s commitment to sustainable waste management has been officially recognised through numerous awards including a Green Apple award for community projects in 2010 and a Green Hero award in 2011. They were also the only arts organisation to be shortlisted for the prestigious Best Green Business award in 2011. In 2010, their award winning waste management initiatives earned them the prestigious Chairman's Cup award at the Clean City Awards scheme

Amberol’s products have played a key part in their recycling campaign and in the initiative that won them the Chairman’s Cup. The centre’s ‘Bin the Bin’ campaign involved the removal of desk waste bins in favour of a central office recycling station where a variety of materials including paper, plastics, packaging, stationery, toner cartridges and batteries can be placed in Amberol bins.

“We’ve been using Amberol products since 2007. The recycling bins are used for all public areas and back of house offices for the Barbican Centre,” explains Zed. “We plan to continue using Amberol in the future for our expanding recycling programme and would be more than happy to recommend the company and its products to all our arts partners.”

To find out more about how Amberol’s products can help you, call 01773 830 930 or email info@amberol.co.uk