An ENWORKS supported paint manufacturer, Crown Paints, has announced that by the end of 2011 it will be recycling 100 per cent of waste produced at its main manufacturing and decorating sites.

Earlier this year the company announced that it had achieved a 90 per cent recycling rate across 70 of its sites in the North of England, after a three-year campaign, including at its manufacturing site in Darwen, Lancashire.

It has since extended its waste management policies to cover all 66 of its remaining centres, across the UK and Ireland.

Different types of waste are routinely segregated out by the company for recycling or re-use, with anything that is left being sent away for composting or processing through technologies such as anaerobic digestion.

'Our journey'

Crown Paints’ sustainability manager, Mark Lloyd said: "This is a fantastic achievement for the company and I am proud of all our staff for being so enthusiastic in helping us become a greener manufacturer.

"We set off on our journey to send no waste to landfill in 2008 and it has always enjoyed the full support of our senior management team.

"We think it is important to strive to be a sustainable business. This achievement demonstrates that we practice what we preach."

Wider commitments

Crown Paint's commitments to sustainability have included mapping the carbon footprints of all 240 of its branded products, to help reduce their environmental impact.

The company is working towards reducing its site greenhouse gas emissions by 10 per cent by 2015, and by a further 15 per cent by 2020.

Resource efficiency support

The company's factory in Darwen has also received free support from a locally based, ENWORKS funded adviser from Groundwork Pennine Lancashire, to improve its environmental performance.

This has helped it to acheive annual savings of £600,000 and 295 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e).
 
Successful resource efficeincy initiatives have included reducing wastage when paint shades are changed on the production line, by recycling the first flushings of paint into different paint shades for re-use, rather than throwing it away.

Rigorous new quality control checks ensure that the end product still consistently meets Crown Paints’ production quality specifications, and this more efficient use of resources is saving the business £37,000 a year.
 
Effluent waste on site has also been reduced by 520 cubic metres (m³) per year. Water meters have been installed to monitor the amount of water used to wash machinery during paint changeovers and a strict water useage guide has been implemented.

A further £4,800 in annual energy savings has also been achieved by fitting variable speed drives to the compressed air system on site, to make it more energy-efficient.

Published 14 December 2011