A Maidenhead-based UK waste and recycling company, formerly SITA UK, that collects, treats and recovers energy from waste at more than 300 sites for councils and businesses.
SUEZ recycling and recovery UK is one of the largest waste businesses in the country. It describes itself as fully integrated, which means it collects waste, processes it and recovers energy from it. For businesses it handles general, recycling, confidential, food, hazardous, electrical and healthcare waste, as well as soil clean-up and pipework cleaning. For councils it runs household collections, sorting and processing. Its products include compost, concrete blocks, solid recovered fuel and wood fuel. A December 2022 company announcement said it had more than 300 UK sites and over 25,000 customers.
The business was set up in 1988 as Sitaclean Technology, and became SITA UK. Wikipedia reports its first council contract, in Erewash, Derbyshire, in 1989, then a 25-year contract with Surrey County Council in 1999, Bristol in 2001 and a 30-year contract with Cornwall in 2006. It became SUEZ in the UK after the parent group's merger in 2008. In 2022 SUEZ bought its former UK waste business back from Veolia and reintegrated it, and in 2023 it announced further purchases in commercial waste collection, including FandR Cawley. Its stated aim is to grow newer ways of treating waste, including re-use, recycling, alternative fuels and energy from waste.
The registered head office listed by Wikipedia is SUEZ House on Grenfell Road in Maidenhead, Berkshire, though that is from older material. The company says it has sites across the UK, and its project pages mention anaerobic digestion plants (which turn food waste into gas and fertiliser) at Beddington Lane, Darwen, Ellington Road and Holloway Lane, solar power at closed landfill sites, and a carbon capture plant in the Tees Valley as planning projects. We could not read its full locations page.
Its management page names a wide team: John Scanlon is chief executive, Dr Adam Read leads sustainability and external affairs, Stuart Hayward-Higham leads technical development and innovation, and there are managing directors for municipal, industrial and commercial, and processing in the north and south. The page says the company's contribution depends on the commitment, engagement and teamwork of its people, whom it describes as talented and diverse. Since 1997 the SUEZ Communities Trust has funded community and nature projects near its sites, with more than 2,000 projects supported by about 2010 according to Wikipedia.
Working here can mean many things: running a recycling plant, driving a collection round, managing a council contract, designing a new treatment process, or working in health and safety, fleet, finance or sustainability. Teams include engineers, scientists, planners, lawyers and customer service staff. If you are curious about how a city deals with its waste, how food waste becomes fuel, or how companies hit net zero targets, the work SUEZ publishes on its website is a good place to start reading.
Website: www.suez.co.uk
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