London’s Billingsgate Fish Market, owned by the City of London Corporation, is the largest inland fish market in the UK. Regent Hill, a waste management and recycling company, takes advantage of the large amount of used fish boxes occurring at the market place.
In Billingsgate market, the compaction element is located centrally and is easily accessible for all fish traders. The compacted material blocks are passed on to companies that convert the recyclable material to a usable compound. The new material is then used for manufacturing new products – in the case of the material sourced in Billingsgate, its insulation boards.
Recycling works because the outlay for the machines is more than covered by the savings in disposal costs and by generated revenue.
On-site recycling at the fish market not only saves resources for collection and transportation of waste material, but also provides a closed-loop system to produce recycled material for the construction industry.
British Plastics Federation