FEATURE Supporting green ambitions


As sustainability becomes ever more important in the cleaning industry, Joel Quick, Sustainability Manager at Northwood Hygiene Products, talks to us about how the business has stepped up its sustainability strategy.


Being sustainable has never been more important. With the government setting ambitious carbon reduction targets and many firms making their sustainability pledges, it’s clear that we all have a role to play in looking after our planet.


In the cleaning and hygiene industry, sustainability must be at the forefront for manufacturers, distributors and end users. In a sector that produces a lot of disposable products, being greener is important for purchasing decisions, with customers demanding products that are kinder to the environment. So, what have we done at Northwood to contribute to sustainability and drive change?


As a business, we are very conscious of the way we impact on the environment and we know that it is our responsibility to ensure that this is kept to a minimum. We promote circularity across all functions of our business and we focus on three core elements – energy, raw material use and waste disposal – in our environmental targets.


UK manufacturing


A key part of our strategy has been our continued investment in UK manufacturing. By manufacturing as many finished goods as possible in the UK, we are significantly reducing our carbon footprint, with products and raw materials having to travel far less.


When it comes to distribution, we have made significant gains in efficiency and have achieved a load fill of over 90%. Optimising our vehicle loads has significantly reduced our fuel usage and, consequently, our carbon footprint.


One of a handful of companies in the UK that is fully vertically integrated, selling as well as converting parent reels, we collect more than 100,000 tonnes of recovered fibres and produce nearly 70,000 recycled parent reels a year. 75% of our products are made from recycled paper and all of Northwood’s paper mills now produce Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified base sheet paper.


Plastic reduction


Our plastic reduction programme identified hand towels as a major opportunity to introduce more sustainable materials. For instance, we’ve removed over 24 tonnes of plastic a year from the supply chain by switching from plastic wraps to paper on our C-Fold towels, and we expect to remove at least 27 tonnes of plastic by doing the same with our Z-Fold towels.


Whisper Eco – the first toilet tissue in the Whisper range to be wrapped in paper – further underlines our pledge to reduce plastic. Whisper Eco uses FSC certified, sustainably sourced, 100% recycled paper and comes in plastic-free


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packaging. With all packaging, including the core, paper, wrap and box, coming from FSC certified sources, Whisper Eco is the most sustainable toilet roll we’ve ever produced.


Recycling innovation


Use of plastic is a challenge, and we have replaced plastic packaging with board across our North Shore and Raphael ranges. We use 100% recycled ABS for our plastic inserts for these ranges, but we were conscious that it was too easy for end users to simply throw them away when the rolls were finished.


That’s why we launched our Green Loop service, which allows users to recycle the plastic inserts in a closed loop and turn them back into the next generation of inserts. It’s been a successful project with hundreds of customers signing up for their recycling bin. We have plans to introduce a similar scheme for recycling dispensers in the future, which will help to divert even more plastic from landfill.


Customers increasingly demand sustainable partners and, at Northwood, we are doing what we can to ensure that every element of our operations supports their environmental ambitions. We’re proud to be doing our bit for a greener and cleaner future.


For further information, call 01952 236 930, or visit the website below.


www.northwood.co.uk twitter.com/TomoCleaning


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