Being a company that manufacturers out of timber, we understandably create wood waste. The majority of our waste is made into chippings when the timber is converted through our machines. Our extractors duct the waste away from the machine being used and suck it into large bags that are attached to a dust extraction unit that is outside our factory.

We also have a separate unit for very fine dust that comes off of our saws and this is kept separate from the chippings so as not to contaminate them.

Our land lord Derek Joy is a well respected Turkey farmer in the local area and he uses our chippings for the turkey beds on his farm. As a company we see this as a great way of avoiding the cost in time and energy of our waste being collected by a waste contractor. Our fine dust does go to landfill however by its very nature and being so fine this type of waste mulches down very quickly and would compost extremely well. It is also very small by volume as the dust itself is very fine.

As for any off cuts and length/ defect waste we keep this in storage for us at winter time. Our factory is heated by wood burners and they are fed by our off cuts produced during the year. This is extremely cost effective and also has very little environmental impact as we are not using any secondary sources for heating such as gas or electricity.

We know there are further improvements that can be made as we are growing quickly and we expect that our land lord will not be able to use all our waste. At this time we would look to change our bag extraction system for an automatic fed heater system so our waste is burnt immediately through the winter.

I know this isn’t the most exciting of topics however I think in this day and age it is important for our customers to be able to know what effect there product choices are having on the environment and how as a company we are dealing with our waste responsibilities.