After a trip to a small garden centre in Chichester in October 2005, ACM waste management consultant Lezlee Burke was surprised to notice a large pile of baled card outside an adjacent building.
Her natural curiosity in all things waste-related led her to Wight Salads, the UK’s largest organic tomato grower, and its particularly challenging waste management problem.
Wight Salads was on the lookout for a company that could completely handle all its waste requirements, allowing it to get on with its core business of growing over 25 million kilos of tomatoes every year.
The company has two main sites, one on the Isle of Wight and one in Kent. In October 2005, the firm was spending in excess of £200,000 on waste management to dispose of waste streams including old tomato plants, grow bags, polythene and cardboard.
Burke explains: “To address the waste management challenges at Wight Salads was a truly monumental task. The company produces vast quantities of waste every year from its 271 hectares of greenhouses. However, 50 per cent of that annual waste, a staggering 1,000 tonnes, is produced in just one month during a period called ‘turnaround’, when all of the glasshouses are completely cleared of old plants, the grow bags they grow in and the polythene floor and anti-condensation wall lining.
“The glasshouses are then prepared for the next season’s planting. This time is vitally important, and all waste must be removed efficiently and speedily.”
In the past, a proportion of the waste produced by Wight Salads was sent to landfill, but now a composting programme is being introduced on the Isle of Wight, with all the compost used to grow new tomatoes. All the cardboard and polythene that the company produces is now being recycled.
Burke adds: “In order to prove that we could manage this huge challenge, we conducted recycling trials for Wight Salads, saving the company 41 per cent on its waste management costs during that period.
“We have now signed a three-year agreement with the company to ensure ongoing improvements. We have supplied three compactors and a baler in Kent, together with a specifically designed and built-sealed, leak-proof container for the transport of waste tomatoes, which also no longer go to landfill, but are used locally for animal feed.”
The Wight Salads account is managed by Franck Sanchez, one of ACM’s team of national account managers. He says: “Tackling this waste management challenge has been a fantastic achievement for ACM. We have helped Wight Salads to reduce its costs and dramatically improve its environmental performance. And, now that all its waste is being composted or recycled, Wight Salads can call itself a truly green and organic company.”
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