FAQs
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------For all those niggling questions you have about the Elsa Recycling Group and our range of services read our FAQ’s. You’ll find answers to our most common questions regarding secure shredding, waste paper recycling and plastic recycling right here. If you don’t find the answer to your question then please get in touch, we are happy to help.
What material does Elsa Recovered Paper handle?
Where can you collect from?
What accreditations do you have?
Do you have special security in place?
How much does your service cost?
How much waste do I need to consider a bailing machine?
Are your services guaranteed?
How does the recycling process work?
How often do you collect?
Where are you based?
How long have you been in business for?
What type of customers do you have?
Do you collect from households?
What is a PRN?
Is there a problem with packaging waste?
What is classified as packaging waste?
What material does Elsa Recovered Paper handle?
Our industrial recycling facility can handle a wide range of paper based materials including cardboard,
newspapers, magazines, printers waste, office papers (non-confidential) and a whole range of coated or
un-coated paper products.
Where can you collect from?
Thanks to our dedicated fleet of recycling and secure shredding vehicles, depending on your requirement,
we can arrange collection of recyclables from anywhere in the North West (dependant on quantites).
What accreditations do you have?
Elsa Recovered Paper, Elsa Plastic Recycling are recognised by the environment
agency and have full health
and safety accreditation. We are committed to providing an environmentally
sound collection and
recycling service.
Do you have special security in place?
The Elsa Secure Shredding Facility has a state of the art security system and our security provision is continually reviewed to ensure we provide our clients with the most secure document and data destruction service possible.
How much does your service cost?
The Elsa Recycling Group operate a bespoke service for each of our clients to ensure complete satisfaction.
If you would like to find out what we can do for you then give us a call – in some cases we have actually
helped clients turn their waste into cash!
How much waste do I need to consider a baling machine?
There is no hard and fast rule, but if you have the space and are producing reasonably large amounts of paper
based waste regularly it may be worth considering a baling machine.
Are your services guaranteed?
For the Secure Shredding service we offer full certification of destruction to give you complete peace of mind.
For all other recycling areas (paper and plastic) we are registered with the environment agency and ensure
that none of the material collected by the Elsa Recycling Group ends up in landfill.
How does the recycling process work?
It is really simple. One of our recycling experts will work with you to identify your needs. Dependant on what
you are looking for we can look at any secure document / data collection and destruction. We can also look at
collection of any other materials such as non-secure documents, cardboard, newspapers, brochures, off-cuts,
plastics, etc. We will recommend the best methods for collection (we can even supply the necessary equipment).
How often do you collect?
Our recycling and secure shredding collections are organised as regularly as you need them.
Where are you based?
Elsa Plastic Recycling and Elsa Recovered paper are both based at our recycling facility in Greater Manchester.
Elsa Secure Shredding is based at our state of the art security shredding facility also in Greater Manchester.
For addresses and maps click here.
How long have you been in business for?
The Elsa Recycling Group has been helping customers to help the environment for over 55 years. Established in
1952 we have continued to provide unrivalled recycling services to a growing client base.
What type of customers do you have?
The Elsa Recycling Group is specifically a business to business recycling service. We work with a wide range of businesses both large and small with clients ranging from large Universities and Local Authorities to smaller
scale printers, box makers and many commercial organisations. Whatever the business, whatever the size our
recycling and shredding services offer a friendly cost effective solution.
Do you collect from households?
No. Some of our recycling services are run in conjunction with Local Authorities so even though we may not
collect from outside your house we may well recycle you paper and plastic waste.
What is a PRN?
PRNs are Packaging (Waste) Export Recovery Notes. Each tonne represents a tonne of UK packaging waste reprocessed abroad.
PRNs are numbered documents - similar to cheques - issued by Elsa Recycling Group as
evidence of the amount of packaging waste recycled.
You can use PRNs to fulfil your obligation.
Is there a problem with packaging waste?
The UK currently produces around 10 million tonnes of packaging waste, most of which ends up in landfill sites.
EC regulations mean that it is now the producer’s responsibility to minimise the impact of packaging waste on
the environment by reducing the amount going to landfill. Member states are required to establish return,
collection and recovery systems and to meet targets for the recovery and recycling of packaging waste. It is
important that as a producer of packaging waste that the EC directive is taken seriously as failure to comply
not only harms the environment but could also result in penalties being levied.
What is classified as packaging waste?
The Regulations define packaging as ' all products made of any materials of any nature to be used for the
containment, protection, handling, delivery and preservation of goods from the producer to the user or consumer.'
The directive is applicable where products fall into the following categories:
"Primary" or "Sales" packaging is packaging which forms a sales unit for the user or final consumer, for example,
a box containing soap powder
"Secondary" or "Grouped" packaging is that which contains a number of sales units.
"Tertiary" or " Transport" packaging is packaging that is used to group secondary packaging together to aid
handling and transportation and prevent damage to the products. For example, the pallet and shrink wrap used
to transport a number of large boxes containing boxes of soap powder.
The main packaging materials considered under the directive are paper/fibreboard, plastic, glass, steel and
aluminium. Wood packaging is also included as is packaging made from other materials for example hessian,
jute ceramics etc.
