The Mill Warehouse saves £10,000 a year
The Mill Warehouse is a retail outlet based in various locations in the South East of Scotland and the North East of England. Prior to working with the Business Environment Partnership the Mill Warehouse disposed of the majority of its waste to landfill (including up to 250,000 coat hangers per annum). At least 10 tonnes of coat hangers were being land-filled unnecessarily each year.
Large volumes of cardboard and polyethylene from the Mill Warehouse’s premises were also being land-filled and it was estimated that 95% of the weight of the company’s skips were filled with these materials.
It was apparent that the majority of the Mill Warehouse’s waste, with the exception of plastics and food waste could be easily segregated for either recycling or re-use. The company successfully introduced segregation facilities and instruction at all facilities; is now recycling all paper and cardboard waste on a weekly basis; and has agreed to recycle all of its coat-hangers with a Borders based manufacturer. This project has achieved savings of around £10,000 per annum as the majority of the company’s waste is now either recycled or re-used with little or no costs incurred by the Mill Warehouse.
The company a keen member of the Federation of Small Businesses, has actively promoted this project via the FSB and is keen to see other businesses benefit from the assistance available from organisations like the Business Environment Partnership, from whom more details of this and other case studies can be obtained (www.thebep.org.uk).
“As a member of the FSB's Scottish Policy Unit - and responsible for looking into Waste & Re-cycling as an East of Scotland Region & Edinburgh Branch policy exercise etc., I would like to discuss your report in detail with my colleagues and our Glasgow Staff. From what you have identified there are clearly opportunities for other FSB members in Scotland to have some/all of their paper & cardboard etc., re-cycled & save money - also there will be other by products that are currently going into landfill. I think that there is now an opportunity to make some real progress to help small businesses and the environment, now that I have seen your report”.
Graham Russell, Mill Warehouse