After a trip to a small garden centre in Chichester in October 2005, ACM Waste Management plc 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 more than 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, it 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. Now all the cardboard and polythene that the company produces is 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 Frank 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.”
Meanwhile, soft-fruit specialist Hall Hunter Partnership (HHP) has significantly increased the recycling level at its Heathlands Farm site, following the introduction of waste management equipment supplied by ACM.
ACM has provided HHP with a twin chamber baler for tins and plastics and, more recently, a second triple chamber baler.
Duncan Tyler, operations manager, of HHP, said: “The most important thing for us was to continue improving our environmental performance. Over the years we have tried to recycle as much of our waste as possible, but since the installation of the new equipment we have seen a huge improvement in our efficiency in accomplishing this. And, as well as increasing recycling levels, the new equipment has also helped us to reduce our waste management costs at Heathlands Farm by a massive 61 per cent.”
HHP regularly invites schoolchildren to see and hear about the conservation work that it is doing, and so good environmental performance and efficient waste management are extremely important. Following the success of the recycling initiatives at Heathlands Farm, Hall Hunter is now planning to introduce balers across all of its production sites.
“There is no doubt that good waste management practices and recycling initiatives are good for business, as well as the environment,” Tyler added.
Burke said: “We have seen fantastic results with HHP. The balers we have supplied have delivered improvements across a number of areas of their business. Previously their recyclables were collected as frequently as twice a week, but following the installation of the baler there was just one collection during a seven-week period.
“Fewer waste collections mean significant cost savings, as well as a reduction in the CO2 emissions associated with vehicle movements and the recycling of high volumes of waste streams including cardboard, plastics and tins. This significantly cuts the amount of waste the company is sending to landfill.”
Andy Jacobs and Barry Bolton, ceo and chairman respectively, founded ACM in 1991 to offer bespoke, holistic, waste-related and recycling packages. ACM Waste Management plc is the only nationwide, single source company offering its clients a guaranteed savings complete care programme agreement, says the firm.
The company provides a comprehensive range of state-of-the-art equipment and full servicing and maintenance packages, together with co-ordination of all waste transportation, recycling and disposal requirements for a fixed performance-related annual charge.
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