Worcester based Arrow Distributors has won a fourth Green Apple Award, this time a Gold, in the Green Apple Environment Awards and has also been short listed as one of the official nominations to represent the UK in the European Business Awards for the Environment.
This year’s project focused on introducing a way to recycle packaging from the goods supplied to and installed for builders and developers across the country. Arrow is well aware of the potential for this as recycling of internally generated paper, card and polythene has taken place for several years.
White goods (kitchen appliances) come wrapped in polystyrene, polythene and card and also use a surprising amount of wood in their packaging. The building trade has, historically, been very wasteful and indeed this packaging, in the past, has simply been placed in site skips.
To help reduce landfill waste, save on road journeys dealing with this packaging waste and, simply, to get an edge over competitors, Arrow wanted to offer the facility to return all packaging from goods fitted on sites as part of its installation service.
Investment in better compactors and balers and the introduction of additional skips enabled Arrow to recycle a wider range of packaging material and other waste streams. The quantity of material being recycled has soared with all packaging, metal off-cuts and plastic ducting waste from site installations now being returned to Arrow’s Worcester premises to be recycled. This is all transported on Arrow delivery vehicles that make return journeys so saving around 1000 skips of waste over a year and also the associated journeys of skips being collected and transported.
This year’s project has resulted in Arrow saving an additional 40 tonnes of card, 4 tonnes of polythene, 6 tonnes of wood, 3 tonnes of polystyrene, 4 tonnes of metal, ½ tonne of plastic cups, ¼ tonne plastic ducting waste and 100kg of printer cartridges. Waste to landfill has, in turn, been reduced by around 30%.
The increased staff awareness generated by this and previous projects means Arrow continues to seek opportunities to segregate further waste streams and prevent them from being sent to landfill sites. Arrow also hopes that by demonstrating what can be done, that its customers (builders and developers) will encourage other contractors to do the same.
The Green Apple Awards are now in their fifteenth year and attracted more than 500 nominations this year. They are organised by The Green Organisation, an independent, non-political, non-profit environment group dedicated to recognising, rewarding and promoting environmental best practice around the world.
This year’s project focused on introducing a way to recycle packaging from the goods supplied to and installed for builders and developers across the country. Arrow is well aware of the potential for this as recycling of internally generated paper, card and polythene has taken place for several years.
White goods (kitchen appliances) come wrapped in polystyrene, polythene and card and also use a surprising amount of wood in their packaging. The building trade has, historically, been very wasteful and indeed this packaging, in the past, has simply been placed in site skips.
To help reduce landfill waste, save on road journeys dealing with this packaging waste and, simply, to get an edge over competitors, Arrow wanted to offer the facility to return all packaging from goods fitted on sites as part of its installation service.
Investment in better compactors and balers and the introduction of additional skips enabled Arrow to recycle a wider range of packaging material and other waste streams. The quantity of material being recycled has soared with all packaging, metal off-cuts and plastic ducting waste from site installations now being returned to Arrow’s Worcester premises to be recycled. This is all transported on Arrow delivery vehicles that make return journeys so saving around 1000 skips of waste over a year and also the associated journeys of skips being collected and transported.
This year’s project has resulted in Arrow saving an additional 40 tonnes of card, 4 tonnes of polythene, 6 tonnes of wood, 3 tonnes of polystyrene, 4 tonnes of metal, ½ tonne of plastic cups, ¼ tonne plastic ducting waste and 100kg of printer cartridges. Waste to landfill has, in turn, been reduced by around 30%.
The increased staff awareness generated by this and previous projects means Arrow continues to seek opportunities to segregate further waste streams and prevent them from being sent to landfill sites. Arrow also hopes that by demonstrating what can be done, that its customers (builders and developers) will encourage other contractors to do the same.
The Green Apple Awards are now in their fifteenth year and attracted more than 500 nominations this year. They are organised by The Green Organisation, an independent, non-political, non-profit environment group dedicated to recognising, rewarding and promoting environmental best practice around the world.
