Recycling is a major part of our environmental policy. We aim to reduce waste going to landfill sites by recycling as much as possible.
Materials such as paper, cardboard, metal, wood, plastics and glass are separated and recycled. The majority of our plastic waste is recycled on site. All other waste streams are assessed to maximise their recycling potential. A monthly report is issued detailing the quantities of waste removed from the site.
The continuing efforts on improving our recycling activities and encouraging employees, led to a significant reduction in the landfill tonnage. In 2010, the level of waste sent to landfill has declined by 20.6% against 2009 figures and we were able to recycle 37.6% of our total waste tonnage, an improvement of 6.4% as compared to the previous year.
PE Waste Collection & Recycling Scheme
Used PE piping can be easily remanufactured into high-quality non-pressurised pipes or can be used to make a wide variety of other products, including bags, plastic lumber and compost bins. Responsible recycling of PE piping reduces the amount of plastic waste going to landfill sites, provides a sustainable source of raw materials to industry and consumes less energy than producing new, virgin polymers.
Our free PE Waste Collection & Recycling Scheme is designed to reduce our customers' environmental impact, whilst keeping them compliant and minimising associated administrative burden and costs. Under this scheme, we will regularly customer collect surplus piping and then filter and recycle it, all free of charge.
We help not only ensure that customer recyclable PE waste is diverted from landfill, but also are closing the loop with many industries to ensure that used material is recovered, cleaned and re-engineered to produce plastic compounds that can again be used for many different applications. We provide regular reports showing the amount of piping collected and recycled, helping our customers fulfil their legislative obligations and also enable them to evaluate their material waste. Regular collections help to keep customer sites clean from plastic waste – less H&S hazards, better access to traffic and reduced disruption
The scheme has proved successful and during 2010, almost 23 tonnes of plastic pipes has been collected from customer sites for recycling.
How does it work?
Upon a customer’s request and subject to availability, we place a purpose built PE recycling container on their site. This container can be used instead of a waste skip for all PE surplus or waste materials. Once the container is full, or if the use of a site has come to an end, the customer rings the number printed on the container to arrange collection. When the full container is removed, a replacement empty container can be delivered.
Once the full container has been returned to GPS, the containers are emptied, inspected and sorted into the following categories:
- unsuitable for recycling
- suitable for recycling but requires cleaning
- suitable for recycling without cleaning.
Whilst items not suitable for recycling will be sent for landfill, all other items will be cleaned as appropriate and then recycled into materials that can be used in non-pressure pipe applications.
It should be appreciated that for this scheme to operate effectively then a high percentage of returned items should be recyclable within the scope of the scheme i.e. surplus/unwanted PE pipes and fittings. Should this not be the case it may be that a specific scheme would not be viable.
Please contact your Area Sales Manager for further details.