Avoid the landfill, save big money
By Katie Shaw, Forum for the Future
Businesses could save an average of 4 to 5 per cent of their turnover through avoided landfill costs, according to the UK’s environmental regulations advisor NetRegs. Among those quick to cash in on the savings have been United Biscuits, PepsiCo and InterfaceFLOR, using techniques such as recycling, composting and waste-to-energy incineration.
Leading snacks manufacturer, United Biscuits, achieved its target of zero food waste to landfill in 2009, and in the same year cut non-food waste to landfill by 44 per cent, on track to cut out landfill altogether by 2012. There’s no single magic bullet: rather a mix of tactics including improving recycling facilities across all sites, making packaging out of recyclable materials, printing boxes in house according to demand, as opposed to buying them in pre-printed and quickly out-dated bulk, and working closely with suppliers to eliminate inefficiencies right down the chain.
PepsiCo’s Walkers factory in Leicester, the largest crisps and snacks manufacturing site in the world, now sends zero waste to landfill. Any non-recyclable waste is incinerated and recovered as useable energy.
Carpet tile manufacturers InterfaceFLOR, meanwhile, has achieved an 80 per cent reduction in waste to landfill since 1996, contributing towards a saving of US $433 million in avoided waste costs. Its latest trick is to use thermoplastic technology to weave fibres from waste into the carpets themselves.
Carrots aside, the UK’s landfill tax offers a sturdy stick to drive the change, with planned increases of £8 per tonne each year until 2013, from the current rate of £48 per tonne.
Editor’s note: This article was written by Katie Shaw of Forum for the Future. This piece originally appeared in Green Futures, which is published by Forum for the Future and is the leading magazine on environmental solutions and sustainable futures. Its aim is to demonstrate that a sustainable future is both practical and desirable — and can be profitable, too.
