Environmental
The impact of our operations on the environment, both locally and on a wider scale, is something which we constantly strive to keep to minimum. There are several ways in which we seek to minimise our environmental impact:
Waste Management:
We constantly review our waste streams that result from our production processes and business activities so we can reduce, as far as practicably possible, the waste materials we generate. Our manufacturing processes are as lean as possible, with every process optimised to ensure our wastage is kept to the bare minimum. We strive to ensure that any waste material we can re-use, is indeed re-used. We are always looking at new ways to use those waste streams that we can’t currently re-use. For example we have donated waste glass that wasn’t suitable for us to re-use to an art project for use in a school based mosaic project and also some of our waste glass has been crushed for use in road surfaces and filtration systems. Any suggestions are always very welcome on how we can re-use our waste.
Recycling:
Where it is not possible to minimise and reuse any waste materials from our activities we recycle it, if we can. Every year we recycle in excess of 350 tonnes of waste glass. This glass is used
to make new sheets of glass by the major glass manufacturers in the UK.Work is on-going to enable the recycling of more glass products, so even more gets reused and even less waste ends up in landfill.
We also recycle the cardboard, paper, wood, plastic and electronic waste that occurs as a result of our business.
We also recycle water; the processing of glass uses significant amounts of water, all of which has to be cleaner than it arrives from the mains supply.
We recover the water from our main water based processes at the point when the water becomes too dirty for those purposes.We re-use this water in other of our production processes that don’t require such high levels cleanliness.
Once the water becomes unusable for these processes it is disposed off but is still cleaner than it arrived from the mains supply.
Where it is not currently possible to recycle waste materials at the moment, these are responsibly disposed of through accredited and licenced waste carriers. Thankfully, this is only a small amount and is getting smaller every year.
Power Savings:
As a large consumer of electric, we are always monitoring and reviewing how we can best save power and in turn cut our carbon footprint. We are always looking at new technologies and methods of controlling our power to enable us to do just this. We have worked in collaboration with The Carbon Trust and Rezolve Cornwall to improve our knowledge and skills in all areas of environmental management.
Transport Management:
We have a large fleet of vehicles to enable us to service our customers throughout the South West. To keep our delivery miles to a minimum we manage our transport system and delivery routes to ensure we don’t make any unnecessary trips, whilst keeping our customers happy. We meticulously maintain our modern vehicles, so that they are in tip top condition to help keep them as fuel efficient as possible.
Please take a look at our Environment Policy – download it here:
