Case study | Retail (non-food)
With a well-established history dating back to 1865, Dobbies is the UK’s largest garden centre retailer with 76 stores around the country.
Dobbies’ stores offer customers a range of plants and houseplants, seasonal items, homewares and cookshop, pet, gift and food as well as popular in-store restaurants and soft plays. Dobbies’ purpose is to enrich people’s lives and nurture connections between people, the community and the environment.
The challenge.
When SWRnewstar first partnered with Dobbies, the UK’s leading garden centre retailer, the priority was clear: elevate waste management performance and boost recycling across all sites. Dobbies had already shown strong commitment to sustainable operations—aiming to increase recycling rates and divert more waste from landfill—but needed a more strategic, data-led approach to unlock the next level of progress.
Following the disruption of the pandemic, new challenges emerged. Changes to on- site routines meant that some recycling streams were being underutilised, behaviours had shifted, and valuable materials weren’t always being captured. Although every garden centre was equipped with balers and ample storage for bulking cardboard and plastics—materials that attract valuable rebates—analysis revealed that bale collections were significantly lower than forecast.
This highlighted a clear opportunity to reengage teams, refine site behaviours and maximise the financial and environmental value of recyclables.
Our solution.
SWRnewstar introduced a fully consolidated, insight-driven service designed to reset on-site practices and embed longterm improvement.
A smarter, streamlined system
- Segregation at source was introduced and reinforced, ensuring recyclable materials were captured correctly from the moment waste was generated.
- Rebateoptimised collections were implemented through a UKleading recycling network, increasing value from highquality baled materials.
- Realtime monitoring of recycling performance allowed continuous improvement and rapid identification of inefficiencies.
Support where it mattered most
To ensure consistency across all garden centres, SWRnewstar completed detailed site audits - combining inperson visits, Microsoft Teams assessments, and desk-based analysis. These reviews identified general waste skips as a major focus area. Many were removed or replaced with recycling-led alternatives, complemented by carefully planned bin provision to support better segregation without compromising operational needs.
Throughout the pandemic, tailored support, education and remote guidance helped teams adapt, stay aligned with best practice, and keep sustainability momentum strong.
Data-led optimisation
Collection data was routinely analysed to ensure all services - particularly baler collections - were being fully utilised. This enabled Dobbies to capture more value from cardboard and plastics, reduce general waste, and improve operational efficiency at scale.
“SWRnewstar have provided a service that allowed us to enhance our recycling, reduce our costs and obtain best value for our material generated. They worked with Dobbies team members to introduce procedures that increased segregation and this significantly cut the amount of general waste we produce. With general waste volumes currently around 33% lower compared to 2019, this is aligned with our sustainability objectives and ensured we can invest these savings into our core business. We continue to work with SWRnewstar on innovative solutions with a long-term view of achieving a closedloop plant pot and tray recycling solution. Our team at Dobbies are very pleased with the results.”
The impact.
The partnership has delivered outstanding progress, directly supporting Dobbies’ long-term sustainability goals:
1131
tonnes decrease in general waste compared to 2019
47%
reduction in general waste sent to landfill
468% increase in rebate value from material between 2020 and 2022