The owner of a waste collection company that distributes reusable items to deserving causes said she was "a woman in a man's world". She first tried to make a waste clearance business work a few years ago, but the Covid pandemic made it difficult. "I've been warned a couple of times that it's definitely a man's world and I shouldn't be involved," she said. "Just because I'm a woman, it doesn't mean that I can't do the job efficiently," she added. Across the country, only 19% of the waste management workforce is female, according to data from the Chartered Institute of Wastes Management.