“Investment grade” policies are key to UK growth, green jobs and net zero success, says Biffa CEO

Michael Topham, CEO of UK waste management business Biffa, says his company has been through “a huge transformation” in recent years.

Biffa employs 11,000 people and is responsible for the collection and management of nearly five million tonnes of waste annually from more than 130,000 UK businesses and two million households.

“20 years ago, Biffa was a collection and landfill business,” says Topham. “At the turn of the century, about 90% of household waste went to landfill, now less than 10% does.”

The change is reflected in the workforce Topham leads. Frontline collection crews and bin lorry drivers remain at its core, but they are joined by engineers, data scientists and circular economy specialists.

Regulatory change is at the heart of this transition, driven by the push and pull factors of climate change and the growing recognition of the value in waste—from energy generation to recycling.

“I always remind people in our business that regulation is our friend,” he says. “But it's vital that regulation is done right.”

Because of the size and profile of Biffa, Topham says the company has been involved in conversations with policymakers to help ensure regulation fosters positive change while creating “investment grade” commercial opportunities to accelerate progress.

“Policy has to be designed to unlock capital,” he says. “In waste management, the capital comes from the private sector. Billions of pounds were invested in the development of energy from waste because of landfill tax. It was a policy that unlocked private capital.”

“We've got ambitious backers. We’ve got money to deploy. We just need the policies to be investment grade. And if they come the opportunities are huge for the UK and for us as a business to create a circular economy, great green economy jobs and new technologies,” he adds.

Be ready for change—even when it changes

Change has consistently created opportunities for Biffa. Topham gives the example of a law introduced in 2025 requiring businesses to have food waste collected separately. The same law is coming in for household waste. Similarly, the UK is set to see the introduction of a deposit return scheme for plastic bottles and aluminium cans.

But despite such opportunities, Topham maintains an air of seasoned circumspection.

No business leader can afford to sit on the sidelines when new opportunities arise in the current climate, but Topham is aware there are risks associated with moving too quickly, or overcommitting—especially when opportunities relate to policy.

“During my seven-year tenure as CEO I can look back at a number of times when I've thought, crikey, a new policy is coming and we've got to get ready. And you have got to be ready, but you've probably got to be a fast follower in this business. Because investing ahead of expected regulatory change can be dangerous.”

“There have been a lot of pronouncements about what's going to happen when and how it's going to massively change things, and then sometimes they've not happened or they've been significantly delayed and people have been left holding the baby, having made investments that no longer make any sense.”

Know when to invest—and when not to meddle

In 2023 Biffa was acquired by US private equity firm Energy Capital Partners (ECP). Topham says the new owners have helped accelerate the transformation of the business, supporting investments in areas such as M&A.

“We are established as the consolidator in the market,” says Topham. “We've done a lot of M&A and it's a very compelling strategy because we’re a network business where scale is everything.”

As well as backing the company’s M&A plans, Topham says the new owners have empowered him to keep leading the business in the way that made it an attractive acquisition target in the first place. “They're very supportive and challenging, but they don't try and do my job for me,” he says. And that’s an approach Topham says he takes with his own leadership team.

Topham says his approach to building his senior team has been shaped by important self-awareness. For example, he cites the critical importance of his Chief People Officer in bringing insight, skills and experience that contrast and complement his own greater focus on strategy and his natural inclination towards numbers and performance, having previously been CFO at Biffa.

However, it is also critical that CEOs know when they must step in. “We've done a couple of big transactions where, because of the size of the deal, it has been a CEO to CEO deal,” says Topham. “Sometimes you've got to know when this is one for me.”

Topham’s thoughtfulness regarding when to step in and when to step back, and how best to complement his own skills and experience is in keeping with a waste management sector that he describes as “low ego and quite humble”. But while it may lack the glossiness of more glamorous sectors, Topham is passionate about its worth, and appreciative of his role within it.

“I consider myself fortunate to be the chief executive of a business where we're making a real difference to the UK, to our resource sustainability and our journey to net zero,” he says. “To be able to sell that vision to people is a real privilege.”