SUSTAINABILITY & WASTE A COMMITMENT TO CHANGE Established in 1901, tile manufacturer and importer Johnson Tiles has been at the


forefront of sustainable development for over two decades. Here, Johnson Tiles’ Head of Procurement & Production Support, Jason Bridges, explains how the tiling industry can contribute towards sustainability initiatives.


Sustainability is maintaining its place at the forefront of corporate thinking, as the need to develop sustainable alternatives grows in-line with environmental concerns. This demand for sustainability transfers to consumer awareness where environmentally-friendly alternatives to more harmful existing products are required by eco- conscious customers.


When considering tiling solutions, a lot of focus rightly rests on the manufacture of the tiles themselves and ways in which waste can be reduced during manufacturing. However, rethinking attitudes towards waste can help with the need to reduce the utilisation of single-use materials within packaging and enables us to repurpose existing waste.


In the current moment, single-use plastics are a key issue for sites where sustainability and environmental considerations are key, as well as in the wider consciousness where single-use plastics have become a major concern for environmental initiatives. With the prevalence of waste plastics widely considered to be a global crisis, addressing the use of plastics within packaging is critical.


Plastic shrink wrap has long been used to stabilise pallets and provide a layer of protection for tiles in transit, with the polymer used to make this protective layer usually being made from chemicals extracted in fossil fuel production. These materials, as well as being harmful to the environment, also result in a higher disposal cost on site. However, more sustainable alternatives are now emerging.


A successful example of this is Johnson Tiles’ recent joint venture with Polythene UK to implement stretch wrapping for pallet stabilisation that has been made from the waste from sugar cane farms. By utilising waste from an existing manufacturing process, no excess product is harvested to create the wrapping. Certified by the UK’s Carbon Trust, the ‘Polyair’ product, manufactured under


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licence by Polythene UK, provides a 100% recyclable, carbon-neutral solution. Being bio-based, the sugar cane actively absorbs CO2


from the atmosphere, as well as


releasing oxygen during the process of photosynthesis. Not to be confused with oxy-degradable products that cannot be successfully re-used due to the change in the molecular structure of the ‘plastic’, this ‘green’ polythene can be infinitely recycled, providing there is the means to do so. This sustainable alternative eliminates the need for plastic wrapping for deliveries and ensures that packaging remains safe, secure, and presentable as a recyclable solution. Combined with our cardboard shredding and packaging, our full packaging solution is 100% recyclable.


Recycling has become commonplace in society, and is an elemental part of the ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ mantra that is familiar to so many of us. Ensuring that packaging is recyclable remains a key responsibility of manufacturers as sustainable alternatives to plastics, and other non- recyclable materials.


Whilst this triad of actions helps address existing waste, it is also important to specify out products which generate this waste in the first place, and specify in products that contain recycled content, or take advantage of waste streams that exist already. By reimagining existing waste and repurposing it, it is possible to reduce production of “new” material, instead taking advantage of materials that are already available. For instance, Johnson Tiles’ UK-manufactured products contain up to 20% recycled materials as part of our ceramic waste scheme. So, by altering our perspective to view waste as instrumental at the beginning of the specification process, rather than as a by-product which must be dealt with at the end of the manufacturing process, we can help to reduce our impact on the environment.


www.johnson-tiles.com www.tomorrowstileandstone.co.uk


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