This month I’ve been thinking about carbon reduction (here he goes again I hear you say).
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.
But we can help!
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
Yale have discovered a fungus that eats plastic…
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.
As you know I am a firm believer that we should all endevour to ‘put something back’, especially into the local community. It is equally important and undoubtedly also in everyone’s best interests to help and support our young people. It is vital that we ensure our young people get the best possible start in life; they are our future workforce and our ongoing success will inevitably depend on them.
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.
