Earlier this year, Valpak started working with Waddington Europe to help them get their hard work on reducing their impact on the environment, by diverting all their waste from landfill, recognised.
As producers of thermoformed plastic trays and packaging, Waddington Europe understand the importance of reducing their impact as much as possible, and for them, committing to zero waste to landfill would help all three manufacturing sites overcome the different challenges faced on-site.
Waddington Europe’s story
Following the acquisition of a number of different thermoforming businesses across the UK and Ireland within the last seven years, each with a very different approach to waste management, Waddington Europe wanted to apply more uniform and streamlined waste management practices across the whole company that also incorporated their commitment to achieving zero waste to landfill.
Previously some of the sites had a lot of independent waste contractors, and in some cases, contracts weren’t in place, which made it harder to know where all their waste went for treatment. Waddington Europe were looking for help to introduce synergy across all three sites, so they could collectively work towards achieving a company-wide zero waste to landfill certification.
Waddington Europe approached our Zero Waste to Landfill team for help and advice and chose to work with us over another certification company, as they felt that we were more engaged. They were impressed with the guidance we provided to them prior to being appointed and recognised that we were best placed to help them achieve their goal due to our long-standing waste management background and expertise.
How we helped
We carried out a detailed investigation to make sure they could achieve their goal and climb the waste hierarchy as high as they could. We pointed them in right direction to improve things by providing them with a framework of information needed and identified information gaps.
Once Waddington Europe had the necessary information in place, they were able to reduce their plastic process waste by making sure that they were recycling as much of it as possible. On 9 July 2020 they managed to obtain Zero Waste to Landfill Certification.
The process that they undertook to achieve the certification also made them take a good look at what all their sites were doing, which enabled them to fix problems around waste management that hadn’t been addressed. In the long run, the new processes in place will help to save the business both time and money as well as benefitting the environment, with less waste going to landfill.
In addition, any waste left after reusing, reducing or recycling is sent for incineration to make clean energy.
Results
Waddington Europe will be able to use their Zero Waste to Landfill Certification and the work they’ve done to achieve it to help all sites to obtain ISO 14001 accreditation.
Going forward, Waddington Europe will set new waste targets for the coming year, and we advised that they look to record more reuse regarding their pallets and polymer bags.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this weblog represent those of the individual authors and not those of Valpak Limited or any other organisation.
