Reliable, Sustainable Waste Management for a Complex City-Centre Strip-Out

The Challenge

The company has an established strong waste removal model throughout England, where reporting, segregation, and compliance aligned with their carbon plan.
For a major student accommodation strip-out in central Edinburgh, they needed:
• A reliable waste partner who could match their Manchester setup
• Full transparency and reporting to feed into group-wide ESG plans
• A provider with strong sustainability credentials
• Responsive service capable of adapting to unpredictable demolition volumes
• A team experienced in working in tight, high-pressure city-centre environments
Access on the Edinburgh site was highly restricted, with narrow streets, no turning circle, and heavy programme pressure due to the  September student intake deadline. Accurate forecasting was difficult — and waste volumes turned out significantly higher than anticipated.

Professional, knowledgeable team

A mid-contract site visit to Smeaton reaffirmed their choice:
“We were blown away — the facility was incredibly tidy, well-organised, and the team clearly take pride in their work. The General Manager was so knowledgeable. You could tell he’d been there a long time.”
— Courtney Grimshaw, Business Operations Manager
Project Interiors now intends to use Hamilton across all their Scottish projects, including upcoming works in Glasgow.

The Results

Outstanding Environmental Performance – Across 250 tonnes of waste produced between May and September:
• 98.7% was recycled or recovered
• Only 1.3% went to landfill — well below construction industry averages for unavoidable landfill waste
• Reporting was delivered promptly each month, giving full ESG visibility
“We aim for less than 1% to landfill and considering the intensity of the demolition phase, we were really impressed with the results.”

Reliable Service Under Pressure – The demolition phase generated far more waste than forecast. Despite unpredictable volumes:
• Hamilton consistently delivered rapid exchanges
• Even late-afternoon requests for next-day collections were met
• Site teams always had the containers they needed to keep the project moving
“The reliability from Hamilton has been above and beyond. Every request we made was met or exceeded.”

Strong, Responsive Account Management – Our Account Manager and the rest of the team provided:
• Quick responses
• Proactive monthly reporting
• Clear communication when materials needed correcting
• Smooth coordination during high-intensity phases
“Exceptional. Our Account Manager is incredibly responsive, on the ball, and the whole team picks things up seamlessly when needed.”

Future Partnership

Project Interiors plan to expand their relationship with Hamilton Waste across Scotland. They have already discussed additional Biffa Group facilities to support wider group operations.

“If you need a waste partner that’s reliable and exceeds expectations, I would 100% recommend Hamilton.”

Summary

Hamilton delivered a fully transparent, highly reliable and sustainability-focused waste management service for one of Project Interiors’ most logistically challenging projects.

From rapid collections to exceptional landfill diversion rates, the partnership ensured the project stayed on programme, compliant, and aligned with the company’s ESG commitments.

“If you need a waste partner that’s reliable and exceeds expectations, I would 100% recommend Hamilton.”

Courtney Grimshaw, Business Operations Manager