How Biffa are getting involved
Without positive intervention, environmental and public health issues will inevitably get worse. That’s why we’re joining forces with WasteAid, offering our time, expertise, position and funding to help communities to address local waste issues, no matter how small and tackle the everyday challenges created by a lack of waste management.
Our donation to WasteAid will enable the charity to grow and develop its infrastructure to support further projects. In addition to Biffa’s annual contribution, we hope to raise more funds through Biffa employee fundraising and as well as our suppliers and customers. Ultimately Biffa’s aim is to help WasteAid highlight global waste issues, support them in finding and implementing solutions whilst improving communities and lives.
Make a single or regular donation to WasteAid and support global waste solutions.
Biffa's fundraising campaigns
Biffa staff actively hosted and participated in events across the UK to raise additional funds for WasteAid’s “Widening the Net” appeal, backed by UK Aid Match to stop plastic pollution. All personal contributions were doubled by the government and will be used to build a plastics recycling training centre in the coastal city of Douala in Cameroon where trainees will learn to make products from plastic waste, stopping it entering rivers and ultimately the Atlantic Ocean.
Walk for WasteAid in Manchester
On 6th July, WasteAid hosted a 15 mile walk from Old Trafford to the Etihad Stadium where Biffa staff from the region joined in to support our charity partner.
Waste World Cup 2019
Biffa OneCall was not only the winners of The Vase tournament during the Waste World Cup, but they also raised money for WasteAid.
Personal challenges, bake sales and fun days.
Biffa General Manager Nigel Carr completed the IRONMAN challenge while depots across the country hosted bake sales and family fun days, all to raise extra money for communities living without waste management.
With matched funding, Biffa raised - in addition to our annual funding, over £72,000 of the £168,000 raised for WasteAid’s “Widening the Net” appeal between May and July. We are very proud of our staff and the hard work they put in to organise, host and participate in events and for the personal donations made to support our charity partners.
The money used to open the training centre in Cameroon will seek to empower hundreds of young unemployed people to recover littered plastic and turn it into useful products like paving tiles.
WasteAid’s other projects
Biffa has already supplied vital personal protection equipment (PPE) including safety boots, high visibility clothing, face masks, and litter pickers to an existing WasteAid project in Gambia. The project will create green jobs and turn ocean-bound plastic waste into durable paving tiles.
In April 2019, Biffa’s Business Director, Dean Willett, went to Lake Naivasha in Kenya to offer advice on how Biffa can help support waste challenges. Read his story on the Biffa blog.
Many of the local community grow flowers for the European market and have an average income of $2 per day. There is currently no system in place to collect or process solid waste, therefore, the objective of this project is to collect, manage and recycle waste to provide a cleaner environment for people to work in.