Recently, currency markets have been volatile to say the least, with the US dollar and Euro at times rallying against the British pound (GBP) and more recently falling. The events of August through to January in 2009 has seen almost daily changes to the strength or weakness of all of the major trading currencies including the Euro, the US dollar and the GBP. While short-term predictions for these three currencies are probably best seen through a crystal ball, the long-term outlook is that the Euro and US dollar will gain and maintain a strong position against the British pound.

What does this mean for imports into the United Kingdom from overseas manufacturers in China and Eastern Europe?

Prior the end of 2007 rally of the Euro and Dollar against the pound, buying imported products from China and Eastern Europe appealed to many UK businesses and local government as the pound had more buying power. In January 2008, the GBP hit records lows against both the Euro and US dollar – for importers of products from overseas this meant that their buying power significantly weakened in the Chinese and Eastern European export markets.

This reduction in purchase power along with an increase in transportation costs means the overall appeal of buying from overseas manufacturers has decreased advantages.

Why should UK businesses, local councils and government favor buying from UK manufacturers?

The weakening GBP when assessed against the risks of buying goods from overseas manufacturers, such as unknown quality of raw materials, long lead times and the requirement to order in bulk means UK businesses, local councils and government have considerably more reasons to buy goods manufactured in the United Kingdom.

When buying from UK manufacturers, businesses, local councils and government reduce the risk of inferior product quality, delayed delivery and unexpected increases in costs. UK manufacturers offer the assurance of:

• Greater understanding of market, environment and quality requirements
• Regulatory compliance
• Lower transportation costs
• No increased costs through currency fluctuation
• Lower volume requirements for manufacture

Why Unicorn Containers Limited (UCL) stands out as a preferred UK manufacturer of waste management products

UCL develop and manufacture practical waste and environmental solutions for businesses, town councils and government in the United Kingdom and overseas including:

• Customized waste management solutions that include branding
• A wide range of outdoor litter bins
• Indoor litter bins
• Smoking control and disposal options
• ‘On-street’ recycling stations
• Wheelie bin housing’s and secure frames
• Dual purpose recycle bins
• Healthcare waste
• Vending machines
• Outdoor seats and tables

UCL are an established UK manufacturer of quality products and excellent customer service. The advantage of working with UCL for your waste management needs include shorter lead times (1-4 weeks), their ability to deliver orders of any size and quantity customized specifically to meet their customers’ needs.

There is a major advantage in being able to sit down face to face with a sales representative from UCL, and discuss solutions to your waste management needs. Our sales representatives are able to work with you and our design staff to ensure our solutions meets your long-terms needs. This means not only talking through your requirements but also viewing the environment, location and space considerations needed to provide the best quality waste management product to fulfill individual needs.

UCL takes all the hassle and risk out of buying waste management products and has a long list satisfied business and town council customers all over the United Kingdom. Using the best quality raw materials and an economic production process UCL is able to deliver affordable, quality waste management products – the way you want them, when you want them.

The United Kingdom produces around 330 million tonnes of waste annually – a quarter of which is from households and businesses. Recent changes to the legislation covering landfills and waste disposal mean that waste segregation is a big issue for local councils and businesses. Not adhering to the new regulations could mean prosecution under the Landfill Directive. The Landfill Directive adopted by the EU and UK aims to minimise waste and increase levels of recycling and recovery. According to the Government Environmental Agency the changes are an opportunity for businesses to get better at reducing, sorting and recycling their waste.

Town councils who have responsibilities for waste planning, waste collection and waste disposal are required to work closely with businesses and their communities to achieve sustainable waste management and disposal. In order for waste to be sustainably managed, communities and businesses will need to actively participate in recycling and classifying their waste.

Waste is segregated in following four types:

One of the many benefits of waste segregation is that the segregated waste such as paper and plastics has become a valuable commodity saleable to domestic and overseas markets. For businesses and local councils in the UK, this means that there are compliance issues in how they segregate and dispose of waste, while also ensuring their employees and communities adopt waste segregation practices.

How is Unicorn Containers Limited (UCL) making it easy for businesses and local councils to segregate waste?

While businesses and local councils need to ensure they comply with new waste disposal regulations, they also need solutions that are cost-effective and efficient in order to ensure that their employees and communities adopt waste disposal requirements.

UCL has developed a range of solutions that make it easy for local councils and businesses to integrate new and improved waste segregation requirements. One of the easiest and most effective waste segregation solutions are recycling stations that can be adapted to suit offices, workshops, warehouses, street collection and building collection.

Our recycling products can be branded and color coded to suit either business or ‘on-street’ recycling stations. Colour coding, size and design can be customized to suit customers’ specific individual requirements. All of our recycling solutions are flexible in the types of waste they can segregate and collect including cans, glass and paper, plastic and dog waste.

UCL has also developed recycling housing that combines the need to recycle and the need for ease of emptying. The wheelie bin housing unit is able to hold either 140L or 240L wheelie bins for ease of collection and disposal.

Within communities, not everyone has the space required to store segregated waste or is able to visit recycling stations. UCL has developed recycling lockdown frames that securely hold signage and wheelie bins which can then collect and segregate waste. The lockdown frames are modular and can be adapted to hold as many waste types as required. They hold 120L, 240L and 360L wheelie bins with a much larger version available for 1110L wheelie bins.

When change is easy and practical both employees and communities quickly adapt their habits. UCL’s recycling products ensure that both businesses and town councils are able to put in place waste segregation infrastructure that is affordable, practical for the purpose and easy to use.

All of UCL’s recycling solutions including our recycling stations, recycling housing units and recycling lockdown frames are made from quality raw materials to ensure they are robust and strong enough for long-term use in all kinds of environments. With our investment in cutting-edge technology and machinery we are able to efficiently produce top quality products with shorter lead times than most waste management manufacturers. All units can be customized with your company or town council logo and painted to suit your branding, environment or décor.

UCL designs practical solutions for waste management including waste segregation and recycling. Our designers and manufacturing staff work with our customers to design and develop individual waste segregation solutions. Our motto is ‘think it – build it’ – bring us your waste segregation or waste management problems and our representatives will work with you to come up with the most economical and practical solution.

Steel prices have increased by 40% over the last twelve months. The steel price increase is due to rapidly rising steel demand and escalating freight and energy costs. For steel product manufacturers the dramatic price rise of raw materials has necessitated passing on the increase of prices for finished products to consumers. This has resulted in the rising prices of finished goods such as waste management products.For the Local Government in the United Kingdom, this means an instantaneous cost increase for council bins and recycling stations amongst other steel based minor and major infrastructure. Due to the rapid increase of steel prices, local councils are finding it difficult to balance budgets against the demand to maintain quality waste management services to their constituents.

UCL (Unicorn Containers Ltd) understands the need to balance quality waste management solutions with a cost effective approach for Local Government. UCL is one of the UK’s leading manufacturers of waste, sanitary and outdoor litter bins supplying to Council’s across the United Kingdom.

In order to provide Local Government with economic waste management options, UCL have invested in new technology and machinery that increases the efficiency in the production of steel based products. This includes litter bins, recycling stations, sanitary disposal and other waste management products used by Council’s throughout the UK.

By increasing efficiency in the production process, UCL is able to keep price increases of steel based waste disposal products to a minimum. Increases in efficiency do not mean a decrease in quality. UCL has maintained their superior product standards and the quality of the steel used in their waste management products. Most waste management products are continually exposed to variant outdoor conditions and in the UK, this means the searing heat of summer, a high number of rainy days along with the freezing cold of winter. UCL use Zintec in their waste management products to prevent rusting and provide durable long lasting litter and waste solutions.

UCL develop and manufacture practical waste and environmental solutions for Local Governments in the United Kingdom including:

• ‘On-street’ recycling stations
• Wheelie bin housing’s and secure frames
• Dual purpose recycle bins
• A wide range of outdoor litter bins
• Smoking control and disposal options
• Indoor litter bins
• Healthcare waste
• Vending machines
• Outdoor seats and tables

While other waste management product manufacturers have passed on high increases in prices to Local Governments, UCL has invested in long-term economic solutions to address the rising prices and demand for steel. Unicorn Containers Ltd works with Local Government in the United Kingdom to develop a wide range of cost effective waste management options to ensure that while market forces may be driving costs up, Local Governments do not have to compromise on the quality of their waste management services.