James, Debbie, Jack, Tom and Natalie each braved the elements and conquered their fears by walking over 20 feet of burning wood embers at 1236 degrees Fahrenheit and across 20 feet of razor sharp shards from two thousand broken wine bottles. Overall, nearly £10,000 was raised for one of Witney’s most worthwhile charities, SpecialEffect.

SpecialEffect is dedicated to helping people with disabilities to enjoy computer games and creative technologies, which have an incredible influence on their motivation, confidence and quality of life.

Jack Mungall, pictured doing the fire walk said, “Standing at the end of the embers waiting to go was a bit daunting, but walking the fire was amazing, the adrenaline surge you get makes you want to go straight back round and do it again – added to that the fact we were raising money for a very worthy cause made the whole experience worthwhile”.

Alison Hilborne from Special Effects said, “What an amazing event, everyone was magnificent and we are so grateful for the Polythene UK team’s sheer get-up-and-go. We have been overwhelmed by how much the event has raised and really appreciate all their hard work”.

Special Effect joins Sobell House and Base 33 as local charities that are being supported by Polythene UK.

Find out more about our polythene and Polylite packaging products by viewing our product range, or by contacting us.

David Cameron joined our ever intrepid James Woollard and other Oxfordshire walkers and local dignitaries at a very special charity auction and tea party to celebrate the launch of a 110-mile walk that will benefit SpecialEffect, an award-winning local charity that helps people with disabilities to use leading-edge technology for therapy, rehabilitation and fun.

The charity is a leading beneficiary of Walk4Matt, a week-long trek through the UK inspired by Matt Hampson, ex-England under-21 rugby player who suffered a serious spinal injury and now raises money for disabled people throughout the country.

David Cameron praised the fundraising efforts of the walkers who are on course to raise £15,000 for their efforts. He said: “SpecialEffect is transforming people’s lives through technology – and it really is transformation. For some people with disabilities, magic is often hard to come by, but the SpecialEffect team is providing magic moments all the time.” James purchased an Oxford United Shirt, which the PM signed for him.

Find out more about our polythene and Polylite packaging products by viewing our product range, or by contacting us.

We’ve all had that moment when we go to empty our food caddies and we realise that we have to try to tie a knot with the microscopic surplus around the edge of our brim full bag! RESULT: the bag splits, tips, slips out of your fingers or at best covers your hands with dubious detritus from a week’s worth of rotting food – still it’s all good for the planet so we persevere!

PUK caddy bags come with tie handles which make removal of the bag from the caddy much easier than the standard bags from the supermarkets. The handle can be used to tie the bag to form a tidy, mess free seal and to carry the bag outside.

We are giving away 100 x 8 Litre compostable food waste caddy bags with handles ABSOLUTLY FREE with all orders placed in April. To get yours simply email your details to: sales@polytheneuk.co.uk

All our caddy bags are EN13432 accredited – suitable for local council food waste collection schemes or for use in home composting.

If you simply want to purchase them, you can do by visiting our ebay page.

100 x 8 Litre compostable food waste caddy bags with handles – £7.00

A lot of work has gone into its development ensuring that it fully meets our requirements as the business continues to grow. The new system will go live on 6 June – only 3 months away.

This new technology brings together all aspects of financial management, customer relationship management and business intelligence software. Combining sales, service and financials will give us a single view of the business, increasing our ability to retain a competitive edge and ensuring that our customers receive the very best service and support.

Benefits to Polythene UK

• Our managers get an instant and accurate view of everything that’s happening
• Instant reporting saves time and improves transparency
• It allows us to quickly spot trends or data anomalies and identify opportunities for growth
• It improves time management by eliminating the need to rekey information and reducing the chance of errors
• It helps different departments in the business share information and work more effectively together

Benefits to you the customer

• It enables us to resolve issues quickly and easily, by allowing staff to locate and drill down to the details of any type of transaction
• It gives us access to data on the move, allowing us to access your history even when we are out and about

As you know we are always looking to improve things where we can and are looking forward to having this technology at our fingertips. It will make a big difference to both our in-house processes and the levels of customer service we can offer.

If you would like to discuss ways in which you think we can improve our service to you please contact us today.

I would be happy to hear from you.

I recently purchased another 500 trees in order to offset the carbon footprint (CO2) we create running our Polythene UK offices in Witney, and it got me wondering…

… Is it possible for polythene to qualify for carbon credits? Thinking about it, I believe our Polylite material could!

Carbon credits are issued by the Carbon Trust to companies who are producing greener products or taking steps to decrease the impact CO2 has on the environment. The greener the product or action the more carbon credits you get. Take my trees for instance:

1 tree = 700kg of CO2 per tonne over a 40 yr lifecycle – a carbon credit value of £9.00

The company we buy the trees from sells these carbon credits to large FTSE100 businesses to offset their voluntary code of practice to reduce carbon emissions, basically they buy carbon credits to balance their carbon books.

So here’s my thinking:

• IF: 1 tree = 0.7 tonnes of CO2 in 40 years
• AND: We sold Polylite to 35 new customers in January who saved on average 400kg of LDPE each a total of 14,000kg (14 tonnes)
• THEN: 14,000kg of LDPE saved by sales of Polylite @ 2.6 tonnes of CO2 per tonne = 36.4 tonnes CO2 saved in just 1 month on the first orders from new business alone!
• RESULT: Polylite is officially greener than trees!

We have applied to the Carbon Trust to get them to come and assess Polylite and award it a carbon credit rating (much more than £9 if the figures stack up). If successful, we can sell the carbon credits generated from Polylite sales onto the FTSE 100 businesses. This would mean we could reduce our prices and pass the savings back to you the customers that have helped us create it in the first place – Come on the Carbon Trust! A saving is a saving – even if it is polythene!

Our application is in we will keep you posted. If you want to talk to me more about this give me a call on: 0843 289 6575 or contact us.

We have all seen the price of material rise by 15% in the last month – the word on the street is that we can expect a further 15% increase in the next couple of months. There is even talk about prices ending up higher than the national peak last March.

Two ways of dealing with this situation:

ONE: Advance order
Order now for your next quarter’s requirement – buying now will ensure you beat the price rises before they happen. We are offering a FREE stock holding service which allows you to pre-order in bulk and call off at your convenience over the next 3 months.*

We have also pre-allocated many of our standard stocks for ‘just in time’ delivery.

TWO: Change to Polylite
The continued development of our range of Polylite products will give you the best option to avoid the increases. If you are not yet using Polylite, we would urge you to give us a call when the additional costs start to affect you – we WILL be able to make a difference!

For more information please contact us on: 0843 289 6575

Plastic is possibly the greatest commercial creation of the last 150 years. It’s made into many things that, on a worldwide scale, we all use on a daily basis, not least the humble checkout bag.

The problem is that polyurethane is not biodegradable, and although recycling plastic is the way forward to limiting the amount of ‘new’ plastic going to landfill – what about the millions of tonnes that are already there – and will be for centuries to come?

To date scientists haven’t found a single way to break down polyurethane. Fortunately however, nature has. Scientists from Yale University, Connecticut, have recently found a fungus in the Amazonian rainforest that naturally eats polyurethane. Researchers indentified the fungus as Pestalotiopsis Microspore, which exclusively subsists on polyurethane. It can also grow in an anaerobic (air-less) environment, which will hopefully allow it to take root in the deepest regions of our landfill sites – brilliant!

Jonathan Russell, one of the group of Yale scientists, has managed to isolated the enzyme that the fungus uses to decompose plastic. It is hoped that the extracted chemical will eliminate plastic waste and help in bioremediation projects.

You may remember that a few months ago we reported our sponsorship of Witney’s ‘Base 33’- winners of the Governments Kids Count Inspiration award. The centre deals with some of the most challenging youth cases in West Oxfordshire, and has been credited with a 20% drop in local anti-social behaviour.

When we identified the need to take on another member of staff to carry out telemarketing campaigns for us, we realised that this would be a great opportunity for one of the young people supported by Base 33. Polythene UK will provide all the training s/he requires and s/he would be massively encouraged by the rest of our bright and enthusiastic team – the sky would be the limit.

I spent some time at Base 33 recently and carried out 5 interviews with interested candidates – I will let you know who will be joining us in next months issue.

• the products you buy
• your supply chain
• in-house processes
• your delivery requirements
• how ‘green’ you are.

James Woollard, Polythene UK’s Managing Director, explains: “Companies will receive a full report that is specifically tailored to their business. The report will outline savings and improvements that can be made as well as eco-friendly cost-effective solutions. You won’t need to work through us, we will put you in touch with individual manufacturers who will improve your ROI and ‘green’ agenda – so you can continue as before, but just get a much better deal.”

For more information please contact us: 0843 289 6575

NBG member companies must be shown to offer their customers and local markets, experienced members of staff, extensive product knowledge, fast efficient delivery service and an approach to customer care that sets a best in class for: Best Service, Best Advice and Best Quality

The National Buying Group (NBG) is an independent, progressive and fast growing group of privately owned builders merchants based throughout the United Kingdom. The group currently comprises 88 partner companies operating from 280 outlets who have a collective turnover of £750 million plus.

NBG promotes members’ innovation in both process and practice in its supply chain, with the objective of eliminating unnecessary build costs and promoting added value and satisfaction for the customer.
It has always been my intention that Polythene UK will be nationally recognised as one of the UK’s leading packaging experts – our membership of the National Buying Group shows that we are getting there.

We supply the NBG with the following products:

• Plasterboard covers (printed & unprinted)
• Gusseted pallet covers (printed & unprinted)
• Hand pallet wrap
• Printed tapes & carrier bags
• Flame retardant film.

For more information, visit the NBG website.

You will also find that this issue contains some amazing giveaways, including:

• A draw for a FREE stretch wrap turntable
• FREE collection of your waste materials
• A FREE purchasing review from one of our top consultants
• FREE corporate branding on your products – including print plates and artwork.

- James Woollard, Polythene UK Managing Director