All aboard the Dover to Calais ferry!
Find out how we’ve helped our partner of 20 years, P&O Ferries, to regenerate resources and decarbonise its activities.
P&O Ferries has over 180 years of experience as a major provider of international travel services and freight transport, sailing on seven major routes between England, France, Northern Ireland, Scotland, the Netherlands and Belgium.
With more than 10 million passengers, 1.6 million cars, and 2.2 million freight units travelling with P&O Ferries every year, getting recycling right on board was our first mission together.
A clear understanding of where and how our waste should be separated is crucial to successful recycling. Together, we redesigned the on-board recycling areas to include Dry Mixed Recycling (DMR) with separate bins for glass, food waste and general waste.
Due to the transient nature of its customers, single-use coffee cups and items that have been left behind by passengers previously contributed to P&O’s waste significantly. So, in 2024, we introduced dedicated coffee cup recycling bins, transforming these tricky-to-recycle items into new packaging. Lost property left unclaimed on board is now recycled with any rebate donated to FareShare, a charity dedicated to relieving food poverty and reducing food waste in the UK. The first lost property collection has already produced over 200kg of valuable materials for resale and donation to charity.
Along with improving recycling facilities for staff and passengers, we offer a bespoke service to P&O to drive efficiency and minimise the impact on its operations. With a dedicated driver and split-body collection truck, we can collect multiple waste streams simultaneously. This limits vehicle movements, thereby reducing carbon emissions.
Since embarking on P&O Ferries’ sustainability journey as their recycling and waste partner, we’ve helped increase recycling rates to 50% and are committed to improving this even further in the future. As we continue removing valuable and carbon-rich materials such as textiles and plastics from the waste stream we’re also helping to decarbonise activities.
We are really happy with the support Veolia provides to us on our sustainability journey. We have ambitious targets and are always looking to firstly minimise our waste and then recycle what remains. The expertise that Veolia has in this area is invaluable and they have already helped us to introduce initiatives such as our coffee cup recycling scheme and introduce charitable donations from textile recycling. There are many other projects planned and we are sure that Veolia will continue to be a great support for us.
Andrew Stevens, Corporate Sustainability Manager, P&O Ferries
I’m so excited to be working alongside P&O Ferries and to support their ambitious sustainability targets. We’ve achieved great things already but we are also developing new innovations to help them to deliver ecological transformation on board by regenerating resources and decarbonising operations.
Emma Price, Regional Account Manager, Veolia
Our long-standing partnerships are a testament to the commitment of our local teams whose proactivity with their customers ensures we deliver essential services whilst helping them navigate evolving legislation and policy to become industry leaders with high environmental standards. Our shared dedication to sustainability with P&O Ferries has guided us through our 20 year partnership and we will continue to work together on solutions for the future.
Adam Wylie, Managing Director - Commercial, Veolia
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