Trentham Estate

The Trentham Estate covers 725 acres in the heart of Staffordshire and is home to award-winning gardens, a bustling shopping village and a busy calendar of events throughout the year. The Estate welcomes thousands of visitors each year too, requiring a total waste management package that is dependable, efficient and able to support day-to-day operations and large-scale events from nearby recycling facilities.

Brown Recycling has proudly worked in partnership with Trentham Estate over the last 12-months, providing a tailored service geared up for the site’s size, scale and unique requirements. The strong relationship between the two Staffordshire organisations is built on shared values around community value and sustainability goals – making it a naturally progressive partnership.

The Challenge

Due to the size and nature of the Estate, waste management presents a number of daily challenges. With multiple bin stores across the site, strict access times, and fluctuating waste volumes during peak periods and events, Trentham required a flexible and dependable solution.

Their main goals included consolidating waste services and ensuring operations ran more efficiently without affecting visitor experience. Moreover, the Estate had to prepare for the new Simpler Recycling regulations and meet its long-term goal of achieving zero waste to landfill.

Brown Recycling’s Approach

Working alongside the Trentham team on-site, Brown Recycling’s Account Manager Christie Dykes worked on a service that could handle both the day-to-day demands and spikes in footfall.

The service implemented includes over 150 containers on site, with a key focus on maximising product lifetimes. That is why the majority of containers – the wheelie bins – are made from 100% recycled plastic. Also on-site are skips and hooklift containers for various other needs.

All collections are carried out using modern compaction vehicles fitted with weighing scales, allowing accurate measurement and reporting of waste volumes. This data is then inputted into a bespoke customer portal, giving Trentham full visibility of its waste performance in a few clicks.

Further support from Brown Recycling includes waste compound management, clear on-site signage to improve segregation and ongoing innovative solutions, all managed by their dedicated Account Manager.

Outcome

A key focus of the partnership has been to improve recycling rates and collection frequency to meet evolving sustainability goals and ensure compliance with new regulations. Brown Recycling has satisfied all these needs by successfully introducing the Source Segregated Recycling (SSR) service and implementing changes in line with Simpler Recycling requirements, ensuring a smooth transition without operational disruption.

By consolidating waste streams and improving segregation, Trentham Estate has significantly reduced its environmental impact while streamlining processes across the site.

Brown Recycling supports this with reliable daily collections, as well as emergency and reactive services when needed, giving the Estate the flexibility to handle changing demands.

As the partnership moves forward, both organisations are keen to keep building on this progress and continue supporting the local community they’re proud to be a part of.