The Waste Recycling Industry undergoing change and the waste disposal company we use, Mailes, recycles 70% of our waste.

At their fully mechanised recycling centre they sort and separate all our waste, achieving a 70% rate last year and have now started to produce recycled products for sale including screened soil, top soil, hardcore and crushed concrete. They have also produced 10,000 tonnes of hardcore to be reused in local industry.

Our PVCu window supplier Duraflex has removed all traces of cadmium and lead based stabilisers from its formulation and replace it with more environmentally friendly calcium organic products, making this switch well ahead of the scheduled deadline and with no impact on its current kitemark and accreditation status.

Duraflex used primers containing hazardous solvents when laminating a woodgrain or coloured finish on to their products, but recently changes in European Legislation required these to be removed. Duraflex now complies with these regulations and made a smooth uninterrupted transition to a new ec0-friendly primer system. Duraflex has introduced a number of initiatives to reduce the amount of waste created during the extrusion process. The majority of scrap is recycled in house with less than 1% non-recoverable scrap being sent off-site for recycling. By removal of the co-extruded gasket from a profile section, the remainder of the profile can be processed internally.

In 2007 Duraflex was awarded the Regional Business of the Year Award in recognition of the strides forward it has made environmentally, not only in implementing the International Standard of 14001 but for the work done in initially identifying a number of key environmental issues and establishing a system of continual review. These initiatives have been proven to significantly reduce energy usage, reduce the amount of scrap generated, and increase the amount of recycling. Cost savings are established where appropriate and new ideas continually added.