Recycling & Waste Management
Website promotes greener recycling
A new website is set to help the
UK’s construction industry dispose of its polythene waste in a greener, more sustainable way.
www.bpirecycling.co.uk has been launched by Europe’s largest polythene waste recycler,
bpi.recycled products, to outline the impressive breadth of material it can recycle and to highlight the lower carbon footprint nature of its operations and its second life products. Rachael Barton, marketing
communications manager at the business, explains: “As a European market leader and an organisation with many decades of experience,
bpi.recycled products felt it was important to take a lead in communicating this information. We also wanted to make our expertise and considerable infrastructure accessible to as many people as possible.” Specifically, the new site outlines how
bpi.recycled products has the ability to recycle 95,000 tonnes of waste polythene each year, including construction film, brick cover, pallet stretchhoods, pallet stretchwrap, shrink film, polythene bubble and foam, polymer bags and other polythene films that would otherwise be exported to the Far East. The business uses this waste to create a variety of recycled products including refuse sacks, outdoor furniture, landscaping products and building films. These impressive capabilities ensure
bpi.recycled products is perfectly placed to offer many organisations closed loop recycling solutions whereby it can recycle a customer’s waste before supplying the same customer with new products
made from their own waste material. The new site also outlines the recycling processes used by
bpi.recycled products and its staunch commitment to recycling UK waste at UK facilities. The business feels this approach is essential due to the reduced product miles and carbon footprint of the activity involved and of second life products created – and especially when compared to using offshore recycling capabilities in areas like the Far East. To this end, bpi. recycled products operates a network of strategically located sites across the UK, all with full Environment Agency or Scottish Environment Protection Agency approval. The new site also makes it easy for people to stay abreast of the latest news, views and opinions from bpi. recycled products thanks to clear links to social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Rachael Barton concludes: “We’re
confident
www.bpirecycling.co.uk will provide valuable information to organisations throughout the construction sector, enabling them to recycle more of their polythene waste and in a greener way.”
Aico makes the grade
The much sought after BS EN ISO 14001:2004 for Environmental Management Systems and BS OHSAS 18001:2007 Occupational Health and Safety Management certifications have been awarded to Aico, one of the UK’s market leaders in domestic Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarms. Aico is committed to reducing its impact on the environment and has implemented a number of procedures to minimise energy usage and waste. This has involved halving its landfill waste through the use of recycling bins throughout the warehouse and staff canteen, the purchase of an extra baler to compress waste shrink wrap from pallets which is then recycled, along with the use of energy efficient vehicles. Further actions, including reducing overall energy consumption
Building & Facilities Management – October 2013
at Aico’s premises in Oswestry, Shropshire are also in development. “The awarding of ISO 14001: 2004 is a welcome endorsement of Aico’s green credentials and further proof of our commitment to sustainable, environmentally friendly operational procedures.” States Barrie Ryan, Sales and Marketing Director of Aico. “18001 certification has been achieved at the same time, confirming our existing Health and Safety Management policy is robust and effective.” A wholly owned subsidiary of Ei Electronics, Aico is a market leader in residential fire protection in the UK. All alarms are designed and built in Europe specifically to meet the UK standards and regulations.
www.aico.co.uk.
Online waste transfer system
In a recent survey, 72 per cent of large or medium-sized construction businesses who were questioned said they were keen to use edoc (electronic duty of care) – a free online system being developed by the Environment Agency in partnership with the waste sector for roll out in January 2014. The introduction of edoc will provide a modern, quick and easy alternative to the exchange of paper Waste Transfer Notes (WTNs) – still widespread among construction businesses and waste contractors across the UK. It will save time and money spent filing, searching and retrieving records manually; reduce paper and cut down on storage needs. And it will give businesses easy access and the tools to interrogate their own waste data and identify opportunities to improve efficiency, reduce waste and cut disposal costs. Construction industry figures released last summer showed construction and demolition waste to landfill in England had reduced by 1.87 million tonnes from 2008 to 2010, with efforts being made every day across the industry to cut the amount of waste.
On schedule to go live in January 2014, edoc is being developed under a four year project co-financed by the European Commission (LIFE+). The UK-wide project is led by the Environment Agency with partnership with the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM), Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA), Reconomy (UK) Ltd, Welsh Government and WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme). The project also has the full support of Defra and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). Every business in the UK has a legal duty of care to deal with their waste responsibly. Every transfer of waste from one party to another eg a business to a collection, disposal or recycling contractor, or between contractors where there is more than one step in the chain, must be documented, agreed and signed by both parties, and a record kept for at least two years. It is estimated that approximately 23 million paper WTNs are produced across the UK each year, which means close to 50 million in storage at any one time. With edoc, pick-lists, drop-down menus, prompts and templates will make it easy for users to complete fuller records. This will in turn contribute to a more complete and accurate picture of waste produced across the UK than ever before - invaluable for understanding and planning for waste at local and national levels in the future. It is thought that edoc could replace the need for costly business waste surveys, saving governments around £1 million per annum. Businesses interested in edoc can find out more now at www.environment-
agency.gov.uk/edoc or email edoc@
environment-agency.gov.uk
recycling & waste management 39
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