BPI cuts waste levels by “one third in six years”

Polythene manufacturer, BPI Group, has revealed it has slashed its packaging waste by one third in the past six years.

The Group, parent company of bpi.recycled products, says the 33.4 percent reduction since 2008 was measured as part of its ongoing commitment to cutting the levels of waste generated by its manufacturing operations.

BPI says it achieved the saving partly by minimising the amount of material used to package its own products – by the equivalent of 25,000 tonnes in the past three years – on a ‘like-for-like’ basis.

John Haddow, Group Energy Manager at BPI, said: “We’re extremely proud to have cut waste so significantly in the past six years. It wasn’t easy to achieve this milestone figure but it's a testament to the commitment to innovation and sustainability that runs through our business that we were able to do so. We won’t be resting on our laurels and will continue to look for ways to cut our packaging waste further in the coming years.”

BPI says it has also reduced waste by down-gauging the packaging it converts for its customers – but only when this is possible without resulting in increased product spoilage. In 2013, BPI reportedly used and converted the least amount of packaging since the company’s records began by replacing single use packaging with reusable packaging. The company’s Dumfries site redesigned the way it packages materials by increasing more finished products into the same amount of packaging; thus minimising waste. Also last year, two BPI sites achieved zero-waste-to-landfill.

The company has also put in place a strategy to reduce energy consumption and mitigate its carbon footprint as part of its sustainability programme, as well as its subsidiary, bpi.recycled products, recycling up to 70,000 tonnes of waste polythene every year.