The school run is back, the stationery aisles are stripped bare, and offices across the Home Counties are gearing up for the traditional September reset. But back to school isn’t just a household event, it’s one of the busiest waste periods of the year for schools, offices and any business that supplies them.
Every August, mountains of packaging arrive with new equipment: shrink-wrapped exercise books, boxed IT kit, pallets of PE uniform. For schools and school suppliers, that’s a spike in cardboard and plastic film that a standard weekly collection often can’t absorb, leaving overflowing bins and skips by the school gates in week one of term.
A few practical fixes make a real difference. Ask suppliers to consolidate deliveries rather than sending separate boxes for every department, fewer deliveries means less packaging in, not just less waste out. Set up a dedicated cardboard baling or compaction point near your goods-in area before term starts, not after the bins are already full. And if your business supplies multiple sites, a short-term uplift in collection frequency for the first fortnight of September avoids the scramble entirely.
It’s also worth using September as a natural checkpoint for your recycling streams generally. New starters, new stationery cupboards and new IT rollouts are the perfect excuse to relabel bins, refresh recycling signage and remind teams what goes where, habits set in week one tend to stick for the rest of the year.
For offices, the “back to school” energy is just as real. Teams return from summer, meeting rooms fill up again, and print and paper use typically jumps. It’s a good moment to check your confidential waste and paper recycling capacity is matched to autumn/winter volumes rather than the quieter summer schedule.
If your business, school, supplier or office, is expecting a September spike, it’s worth reviewing your collection schedule now rather than waiting for the bins to tell you.
Need Some Advice?
Whether you’re looking to improve recycling rates, reduce waste management costs or build a more sustainable waste strategy, our experienced team is here to help.
At Evolve, we support businesses of every size, from independent SMEs to national multi-site organisations and blue-chip companies, providing tailored zero-to-landfill waste management solutions backed by one of the UK’s newest waste collection fleets, industry-leading reporting and exceptional customer service.
Get in touch with the Evolve team today
📞 03330 477 077
