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Waste Reduction
Our roof tiles are delivered on pallets. Until we introduced a returnable pallet scheme some years ago, these often used to be scrapped or burnt. By reusing pallets, we're saving around 1,000 tonnes of timber each and every year. Although the idea was prompted by legislation (The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997) pallets weren't covered by the original rules. So, introducing the scheme - where customers pay a deposit for each pallet and get the money back when the pallet is returned - meant that we applied the spirit of the law as well as the letter.
Any pallets that are beyond repair are either chipped for recycling or fed into the waste-to-energy incinerator at our Burton plant, helping to reduce our overall consumption of energy from other sources.
Better Use of Aggregate
In 2000, we introduced a scheme to make sure that all of the crushed hardcore produced at our Burton site could be used as aggregate replacement. On average our concrete tiles contain in excess of 5% and up to 20% recycled aggregate. The scheme has been introduced at other locations. Of the 450,000 tonnes of aggregate we use each year, in excess of 50,000 tonnes comes from recycling. As well as saving valuable resources, this reduces our impact on local neighbourhoods and reduces the haulage of raw materials.
Water Recycling
A silt de-watering system has been installed which enables water to be recycled and minimises the use of borehole water. In turn, the costs of silt disposal are reduced.
The de-watered silt can be handled as a 'solid' and is disposed of at a local quarry, meeting the waste management conditions of the quarry operator licence. The silt is transported as 'back loads' to the quarry which optimises transport costs and reduces the environmental impact of haulage.
As a result of this system, the moisture control of the silt slurry has been reduced significantly with an approximate saving of water in excess of 2,000m3/per year.
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