Green Issues

During the year April 2006 to March 2007 The Howard Centre disposed of a total of 320.08 tonnes of rubbish. From this 88.82 tonnes (27.75%) of cardboard was separated and sent for recycling.

For the year April 2007 to March 2008 The Howard Centre disposed of a total of 272.49 tonnes of rubbish. From this 75.73 tonnes (27.79%) of cardboard was separated and sent for recycling. It was interesting to see that the amount of waste had dropped by 47.59 tonnes!

 During the year to March 2008 The Howard Centre looked at how the recycle figure could be increased. We replaced our 3 rubbish compactors in May 2007 with stronger ones, although this does not reduce the amount of waste going to landfill it did enable us to reduce the number of waste container changes needed to dispose of it. Our container collection figure dropped from 96 to just 29. This reduced the number of lorry journeys required and therefore the amount of Carbon emissions produced. The average weight in the containers rose from 2.43 tonnes to 6.78 tonnes. A considerable saving on haulage costs.   

In August 2007 we purchased a Baler which meant that we could recycle smaller cardboard boxes, such as shoe boxes, than we could before. In addition to this the Baler could be used to bale clear plastic, which could then be sent for recycling. Our Tenants have been very helpful in segregating their plastic bags and wrappings and since the Balers installation we have sent 1.70 tonnes of plastic away to be recycled, that’s a lot of plastic when you see it piled up prior to baling!

By September 2007 we had sourced a Company that would collect and reuse wooden pallets that had been left in our service corridors and the loading bays following delivery’s. To the end of March 2008 we had sent 247 pallets away for reuse.

Another avenue we explored was the recycling of white paper. As offices become more “paper free” this proved a little frustrating as we were unable to give a reasonably accurate figure for the amounts we expected to be able to collect. However we finally found a Company that would collect relatively small amounts on an as and when basis, free of charge. Each of the offices gained a small box to store white paper in and our Tenants were invited to bring their white paper to Reception. Following a session or two in the dusty archive room a total of 379kg of white paper has been bagged up and sent for pulping. This may not sound a lot but trust me that is an awful lot of A4 sheets of paper. 

We continue to work with all of our tenants to find ways to reduce our carbon footprint on the Environment.