Workplace equipment supplier Slingsby is reminding commercial organisations of the charges now incurred through waste disposal to landfill.

From 1 April 2012 Landfill Tax increased by £8 per tonne meaning it now costs £64 for every tonne of waste sent to landfill.

The point of Landfill Tax is to encourage waste producers to reduce what they send to landfill by financially punishing them.

Since 1998, when it was just £7 per tonne, the tax has risen by £8 every year, which Lee Wright, marketing director of Slingsby, says is making it virtually impossible to ignore.

“Landfill Tax has a big impact on all producers of waste and means recycling procedures are now discussed at boardroom level in nearly all UK organisations, regardless of their size, meaning they are continually reviewing their waste management systems and looking at how the efficiency of them can be improved,” he said.

Organisations are looking to recycle as much packaging and other waste materials as possible and Lee explained that they are increasingly looking at both their suppliers and the products they might be ordering to determine their green credentials.

“As a commercial equipment supplier this is certainly a question that we are regularly asked and as a result we work hard to ensure that our products are packaged using materials that can be recycled,” he added.

“Nowadays companies can win and lose contracts because of their environmental procedures and when you consider that in many cases being green actually reduces overheads there really is no excuse for not being environmentally and socially responsible.”