Record recycling rates in the UK

During 2010, England’s household waste recycling rate reached a record high of just under 41%. With nearly half of England’ household waste heading to the recycling plant or composting plant, a true milestone has been reached. Despite this fantastic figure, England is still trying to catch up with its neighbour Wales, which boasts a recycling waste rate of 43.6%.

Robots to start sorting recycled materials.

ZenRobotics, a Helsinki based robot manufacturer has been trialling its high tech recycling robots for the past eight months, with successful results! The system has been approved to be offered in the UK, and is hailed as the future way of sorting recyclables from waste material. This has significant health and safety advantages, as well as potential for increased productivity.

The Recycler Robot has advanced artificial intelligence that can recognise between plastics, cables, toys, batteries, pipes, CRT monitors, light bulbs, computers, and construction materials. It can sort waste material in a number of ways, either “negatively” or “positively”. The robots can remove contaminants from a set of materials, as well as running 24/7.

One of the world’s largest confectionary plants now sends ZERO waste to the landfill.

Renowned confectionary manufacturer, Nestle, has announced that it is now sending zero waste to the landfill, from one of its large facilities in York, England. The plant, which makes over a billion Kit Kats a year, had achieved an extremely impressive recycling rate of 93%. The other 7% of waste is converted into energy at an energy-from-waste facility, about 60 miles away. Overall this is an impressive and admirable achievement from Nestle.

Nestle plans for all of its factories within the UK and Ireland to have similar zero waste rates by 2015. Two of their plants in Scotland and Cumbria have already achieved this impressive feat. Nestle truly is leading the way with its large scale sustainability polices.

Recycling rates and technology are improving year on year, which makes for an exciting time for those who are involved in the improvement of their local and global environment. With large companies like Nestle embracing sustainable manufacturing processes, as well as home owners doing their bit for reducing landfill waste, the recycling industry is definitely moving in the right direction.

Polythene UK specialises in supplying environmentally conscious polythene products. From compostable bags to machine pallet wrappers, Polythene UK can supply anything needed by environmentally aware manufacturers and distributors.

Reuse: try to reuse as much as possible.
Recycle: prefer recyclable commodities.
Reduce: reduce the extent of wastage.

Think of the ways to adopt the above rules in your work environment. See how you can reuse things. If you are in a business that involves packaging and transporting great number of commodities, then select the packers that reuse the packing material without wasting them. At your end, try to maintain the intactness of the carton while opening the packing so that they can be reused.

Recycling is another concept that reduces the amount of waste that is dumped in to the environment. Prefer paper made of a great amount of recyclable material. Prefer paper bags if possible, and avoid usage of non recyclable plastic.

Avoid wastage at every step. If you are taking copies of the documents take double sided documents. Encourage the habit of using board or a slide show while having group discussions. Later, send all the participants a soft copy of the same. Leave them the decision to take printouts of valuable documents. This way you can reduce the number of printouts taken that reduces the paper wastage. This may seem very simple. But consider if you have to distribute about 100 pages of document to about 100 participants. Prefer use of scanners and fax modems to avoid paper wastage. Reducing paper wastage saves a great number of trees that are being cut down every year for the purpose of paper production. Reduce the extent of power wastage by turning off the system or equipments when not in use. This way you are not only saving power but also increasing the life of equipment, and even saving money. Judicious use of electricity saves the valuable resources used for power generation. Prefer E-conferences rather than travelling. Reduce the extent of water wastage in restrooms by turning off the taps properly.

As an entrepreneur there is a likely chance to increase awareness among public about environment impacts by labelling the commodities with some slogans or information about being environment conscious. Consumers prefer products that are environment friendly. Following green measures in the business improves value in the society as well as among other business partners, an easy way to attain product popularity.

You can even encourage your co-workers and other business partners to follow the above suggestions by being a role model and by increasing awareness about advantages of being environment friendly. Another great advantage of being environment friendly is you can cut down your expenses by way of waste reduction. By the way of providing tax benefits or other benefits by the government to organizations, practicing environment friendly measures strictly will encourage a great number of entrepreneurs to adopt the same.

Here are 12 basic things you can do to recycle and to reduce the waste:

1. Generate as little plastic waste as possible. Plastics are produced with large amounts of petroleum and some toxic materials. Their manufacturers also produce gases and wastes that may contaminate air and water. Substitute reusable products for the disposable ones in your household. Use cloth diapers, napkins and dish towels, durable plates, cups and silverwares.
2. Practice good shopping habits. Bring your own bags in the market, refuse double bags and buy only what you will use.
3. Patronize some goods that are packed in recycled cartons, plastic or paper. Some goods are proudly marked “Made from Recycled Paper.” Buy razors and pens that are refillable.
4. Reject items that are overpacked. As much as 50% of waste by volume consists of packaging. Buy larger sizes of items you use frequently rather than single-use sizes which often have multilayer wrapping. Buy goods in refillable containers.
5. Compost yard and food wastes.
6. Repair, do not replace appliances. Buy well-made products with long warranties.
7. Assess your personal waste production. Each individual’s habits are different. Make a list of everything you throw away in a day, look at what you buy and take an inventory of your home to see how you can create less waste.
8. If you no longer need them, sell glass bottles, tin cans, and old newspapers.
9. Donate old clothes, shoes, bags, trinkets, and other items to charity.
10. Keep boxes like egg cartons and plastic wrappers for other purposes.
11. Reuse brown paper and plastic bags. If they are no longer usable, collect and sell, so these may be brought to recycling plants.
12. Instead of throwing leftover food, why not offer it to a neighborhood pet?