As many manufacturing plants strive towards operating in a more sustainable way to help reduce waste and manage valuable resources Freefoam Building Products announce a significant milestone on their journey. Working with waste and energy partner BIFFA, Freefoam send no site waste to landfill.
Production and site waste is processed in three ways.
In the year to date 44.43% of our general waste was foam and rigid plastic which is collected by our waste partner who process it in to shredded PVC recyclate format. This material is a valuable commodity and can be used to manufacture many other products. The remaining 8.77% of packaging and cardboard is also sent to be recycled.
Our commercial waste, that cannot be recycled, goes to Energy Recovery. It is also collected and transported to a nearby Energy Recovery Facility. Here it is processed and turned in to energy, which is subsequently sold back to the National Grid.
Energy recovery is a technology that sees non-recyclable waste burned at high temperatures under carefully controlled conditions. The process is extremely efficient, robust and safe, with emissions from the process treated to meet stringent European guidelines.
So what happens to the energy once generated? Taking one month as an example the energy provided by Freefoam waste could have powered a 400 watt fridge freezer for 354 weeks, or 6.8 years or a 1500 watt dishwasher for 118 weeks, or 2.2 years – amazing!
Herbert Livingstone, Quality, Safety, Health & Environmental Manager (QSHE), commented “We are very proud to be operating our plant in such a sustainable way. We have worked hard to separate and manage waste on site so that we don’t need to send any to landfill. This work is just a small part of a much wider programme to ultimately deliver a circular business model and help towards the UK’s target to become a net-zero economy.”
