Green Policy

Our Green Policy

As a policy we currently have the following targets to recycle or reuse:

95% of incoming packaging, boxes and envelopes

98% of paper

We will continue to monitor our recycling rates and set new targets each year.

 

Eco-Friendly Printing

In addition, we have chosen to adopt environmentally friendly or UV cured inks for our wide-format printers.

 

Environmentally friendly printing materials

The vast majority of work is now printed on 100% recyclable ‘correx’ or rigid polypropylene plastic.

This material is recyclable in Waste Stream 5, and has virtually replaced pvc as the main choice of outdoor printed signage plastic.

 

Reducing energy use

As an energy conscious company, we aim to continually find ways to save and reduce energy. We turn off lights, machines and equipment when not in use and enforce these policies across the company.

 

Promoting use of non-motorised transport

Wherever possible, we encourage staff to walk, cycle, bus or share lifts to work.

 

Office supplies

Where possible we will evaluate office supplies in the following ways:

If the need can be met in another way

We will favour more environmentally friendly and efficient products wherever possible and will reuse and recycle everything we are able to.

 

Culture

As a company we aim to involve staff in the implementation of these policies, for greater commitment and improved performance.

We take our responsibilities for managing the waste that we create, and dealing with the incoming packaging from our suppliers very seriously.

Over the last few years we have been working towards a target of zero to landfill, and to that end have made huge strides forward.

As well as taking care of the waste we deal with, we appreciate that as with any printing company, we deal with inks, fluid cleaners and the like. These too have been part of our ‘clean up’ policy, and are detailed below too:

 

Internally created material offcuts, packaging and general waste.

In years gone by, it was common policy in most businesses to simply throw any waste, rubbish or surplus into the bin or skip. All mixed together, this ‘rubbish’ was simply taken away, and that was the end of it…

We discovered that if separated, our material offcuts, cards, plastics etc actually had a value to recyclers. Not only were we throwing away a perfectly re-usable and semi valuable material, but we were also paying to have it taken away as ‘rubbish’!

Furthermore, our factory was strewn with odds and ends of trimmings of cards, papers and plastics…saved in the hope that they would be of use some day.

The solution: install rows of labelled ‘sorting bins’ throughout the factory where the waste was being created, empty these into larger ‘sorted cages’ when they were full…ready for collection by the recyclers.

Our use of skips virtually disappeared, and the majority of our trade wheelie bins were returned to the Council, for use elsewhere.

Latterly, our remaining weekly waste is taken to North Yorkshire County Council’s newly commissioned Allerton Waste Recovery Park which separates waste for turning into energy to power homes.

 

Recycling of Timber delivery pallets

All of our incoming delivery pallets are graded for size and reusability.

Our main material suppliers save costs by collecting and reusing their chosen sized pallets. Suitable sizes for our own deliveries are kept for re-use.

Remaining spare pallets are offered free for collection to local residents who put them to 101 different end uses from fencing to carpentry, as well as kindling.

 

Cleaning Cloths

All of the machine cleaning cloths that we use in the printing works are reused until being returned to the supplier for washing, drying and rebagging, ready to be returned for use again.

This closed loop means that no dirty rags ever enter the waste stream

 

Ink Cans

Large empty metal ink cans used to be thrown away as general rubbish.

Following the delivery of our can crusher, metal cans are now squashed into a space saving flat disk, before being taken for metal recycling.

 

Repacking Material

Like all businesses, we receive a lot of packaging from our suppliers, from bubble wrap, to polystyrene chips, cling film etc etc.

Once seen as rubbish, all of this material is now collected in cages, and reused in our Packing department as infill into boxes, tubes, pallets etc.

 

The reed bed

Having read about reed beds being used as water filtration, we planted a special variety of water filtering reed into our landscaping pond, into which our building gutter water and car park run off water goes (via a petrol interceptor machine)

The reed bed is now home to various species of songbirds and ducks that live in the shelter created by the tall reeds

 

By taking the time, and only a small monetary cost, we have transformed how ‘waste’ is seen and dealt with at Edge stickers. We see ourselves as a sustainable business, and will keep looking for further ways to lessen our impact on the environment.