Waste not: how going green can prove profitable

Getting rid of your waste in an eco-conscious way is good for your bottom line as well as the environment. But it’s important to ensure the company you hire is playing by the rules Words Kristian Dando

It has been a long, occasionally hard, and sometimes seemingly thankless journey for the UK print industry to change its attitude to waste. “I really don’t think the industry gets the credit it deserves for the progress we’ve made,” moots BPIF director Dale Wallis when asked about the materially profligate reputation of the trade in which he’s spent 17 years.

He has a point. Thanks to a combination of regulation, the inexorable march of technology and sheer economic necessity, your typical modern printing firm is a far more sophisticated animal when it comes to how it thinks about waste, and in turn what it does with it, than it once was.

Environmental concerns have, of course, played a part, but it would be foolish to discount the stimulus of an economic downturn. “The margins have been squeezed so tightly that the industry has been forced to get a lot leaner,” says Wallis.

Richard Spreadbury, of Blandford-based waste management firm J&G Environmental, has witnessed seismic shifts in the way the print trade has changed its approach to waste during his decade-and-a-half in the business. “In the old days, there was one skip and everything went into that: the hazardous and non-hazardous materials, the lot. The driver would have to spend at least an hour sorting the waste out before collection,” he recalls.

Back in the dark days of harsh chemicals and an everything-to-landfill approach, environmental concerns were considered pretty far out. “People thought that the companies that favoured recycling over landfills were tree huggers,” says Spreadbury.

But in 2012, guaranteeing that your waste is being disposed of safely isn’t just a competitive advantage and a saleable asset – it’s a necessity to stay on the right side of the law and to operate in an efficient and sustainable way.

Financially though, waste management does add up too. It’s £58 a ton for sending waste to landfill, while there’s potential revenue to be derived from recycling. South Wales printer Pensord, for example, has adopted a zero-to-landfill policy, where all recyclables are systematically separated by staff, as operations director Karl Gater explains: “Segregating waste ourselves saves us money when it comes to taking it away. Whatever is left is incinerated to generate electricity.”

"In the old days, there was one skip and everything went into that: the hazardous and
non-hazardous materials, the lot."
Richard Spreadbury, J&G Environmental