‘Wheelie’ serious about recycling: Northern now segregating waste into 33 different categories as part of 2024 environmental mission

The train operator - which manages 467 of the stations on its network, has five ‘TrainCare Centre’ depots across the region and has support staff in multiple office locations across the North of England – already re-uses or re-cycles 70% of all waste generated by its operations.

The 33 different categories are:

Mike Roe, safety and environment director at Northern, said: “Eliminating waste is always our primary objective – but when that’s not possible, we aim to re-use or recycle as much as we can.

“The 33 different recycling strands now in-use throughout our business allows everyone across our near 7,000-strong workforce to play their part in support of our environmental mission.”

In 2022-23, Northern processed 6,458 tonnes of waste. Of that, 2,670 tonnes were recycled, 1,996 tonnes were re-used, 1,660 tonnes were incinerated (generating energy from waste) and just 132 tonnes went to landfill.

Northern is the second largest train operator in the UK, with 2,500 services a day to more than 500 stations across the North of England.