FEBRUARY 2020 WASTE MANAGEMENT
CarbonNeutral® and
therefore do not add to BRITA’s
carbon footprint.
Having built a successful
track record, more recently
the company has worked with
Grundon to identify new ways
of disposing of additional types
of waste and introduced a
series of further waste-related
improvements, including:
Sending unwanted or empty
aerosols to Grundon’s specialist
aerosol recycling plant;
Recycling any damaged
wooden pallets;
Sending over 207,000
kilograms of waste for recycling
in just one year;
The removal of metal from
BRITA’s waste stream, as
contractors now take it away
with them.
It was these achievements
which scored highly with the
Green Apple award judges, who
said: “BRITA UK are well-known
fi lter manufacturers, but their
waste management is equally
deserving of fame.
“They have an astonishing
30-stream system, many of
which are revenue generating,
and send nothing to landfi ll.
They have seen year on year
improvements and now
annually save around 2,000
trees’ worth of CO2.”
Bryan Edwards, BRITA
UK’s Professional & Services
Warehouse manager, says the
keys to success include working
with waste and recycling
experts and receiving regular
statistics to demonstrate the
benefi ts being achieved: “We
were absolutely thrilled with
the award, but for us, the waste
journey was not achieved
overnight. You have to have a
structure and embrace the waste
hierarchy, and to understand
how that works, you must talk
to experts like Grundon.
“Without them behind us
we wouldn’t have been able to
achieve such success. James
Standen, from Grundon,
understands how and what
we do, and he knows what
our business needs are. This
is not just about selling waste
collection services, it is the
expertise and knowledge that
makes a diff erence.”
Compliance
Edwards says he increasingly
turns to Grundon for advice on
waste disposal legislation and
regulation. One such example
is when he had to respond to
ISO accreditation questions on
the disposal of aerosols.
“We only use a small
amount of aerosols – around
30-50 a year – for things like
lubrication or maintenance,
but it had been identifi ed that
these were going into our
general waste,” he says.
“Grundon was able to give
us the technical knowledge
we needed to dispose of them
correctly, and as a result, we
are using its special aerosol
collection service to do so.
Grundon is our one-stop shop
for waste-related advice and
legal compliance questions.
It’s about having the right
partnerships and I fi nd that
they always do the right
thing in making sure we are
compliant and giving expert
advice, rather than just trying
to sell us something.”
BRITA also uses Grundon’s
hazardous waste collection
service for the packing,
transportation and disposal
of items such as acids, silicon
sealants and lubricating oils.
Ollie Stoddart, from
Grundon’s technical
department, says: “We often
fi nd customers need some
support in understanding the
diff erent rules and regulations,
especially around hazardous
waste and its transportation.
“In BRITA’s case, typically
there will be a small amount of
lab smalls and chemicals which
require specialist disposal over
the course of a year. They send
us a list of the materials to be
disposed of, we assess it and,
depending on the requirements,
will either just supply the
packaging, or send in a chemist
to pack the materials ready for
transportation by our specialist
vehicles and drivers.”
The waste is taken to
Grundon’s Hazardous Waste
Transfer Station at Ewelme in
Oxfordshire and then either
sent for High Temperature
Incineration or bulked up into
larger volumes for reprocessing.
Benefi ts of segregation
Grundon’s James Standen, who works closely
with Bryan, says: “We have been pleased to
show BRITA right from the start what could be
achieved and help them understand the benefi ts
of segregating their waste.
“We are always looking for additional
opportunities to increase the services provided.
It shows that being able to handle all of a
customer’s diff erent waste streams can really
deliver change and the fact this earns them a
rebate on their other services is a big plus.”
It also means that BRITA has just one
point of contact for all its recycling needs and
Grundon regularly provides recycling statistics
demonstrating on how much waste is produced,
where it is going and the savings achieved.
As a world leader in its sector, BRITA takes its
commitment to the environment very seriously,
and its green credentials are one of the reasons
it attracts successful partnerships with many top
brand names such as Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Costa
Coff ee and Argos.
Edwards concludes: “As a business, recycling
is really important to us and from a green
partnership and marketing point of view, our
success in this area is an excellent message to
share with our customers.”
Future plans
BRITA has joined forces with wildlife charity
Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC), to
raise awareness about the detrimental eff ects
of plastic waste in our oceans.
As part of its commitment, it is replacing
plastic cups at employee drinking water stations
with cardboard ones and these will then be
recycled via Grundon’s paper cup recycling
service – which takes used paper cups and
reprocesses them into paper, which can be
bought back by customers. Other plans include
swapping plastic milk cartons with recyclable
glass bottles.
BRITA worked
with waste
management
specialists,
Grundon
BRITA’s top tips for a
successful recycling scheme
Having one point of contact for all recycling needs/di erent
waste streams is a real advantage
Make sure you obtain regular recycling statistics to help
demonstrate how much waste is produced, where it is going,
and the savings achieved
Make as much use as you can of
all the waste hierarchy structure
– we are now really pushing the
‘reduce’ section, i.e. don’t have
something come to site in the
fi rst place or, if it does, don’t
make it a waste stream
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