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Closed Loop Recycling
It may surprise you to learn that
Central Government consumes enough
office paper to fill around forty
40-tonne trucks every week. That’s
some 73,000 tonnes each year.
You may also be surprised to hear that
HMRC, which is responsible for one tenth
of this huge paper mountain, is involved
in a ground breaking initiative that
achieves several important goals.
The scheme, driven by the
parallel needs for (a) confidential
data destruction, (b) environmental
responsibility and (c) operational
efficiency, is known as The Closed Loop
Recycling Initiative. It involves the
collection of all HMRC’s departmental
waste paper, in itself no small logistical
task.
HMRC employs 68,000 people in
400 locations around the country. There
are already strict rules in place regarding
confidential data so ‘reaching’ so many
people isn’t quite as daunting as it sounds.
Once collected, the confidential waste
is shredded and turned back into office
paper.What’s so unusual about that?, I
hear you ask.Well, the whole process is
audited from beginning to end and that
means that the original waste paper is
returned as ‘new’ to its original ‘owner’. It
is a perfect recycling loop.
This Closed Loop process ensures data
protection for taxpayers’ confidential
information; meets numerous
sustainability goals; and even puts money
back into the state coffers.
Brighter
Unlike the rest of theWestern world,
we’re fussy about our paper in Britain.
Research shows we like the paper that
crosses our desks to be bright white
which is unfortunate for the environment
as it involves lots of bleaching chemicals.
In fact, every single sheet of desk-top
paper used in the UK is imported –
another fragment of British industry to
go overseas.
‘Closed Loop’ paper is marginally less
bright than theWhitehall workforce has
become accustomed to but is just as
Keeping up with HMRC in
the recycled paper loop
serviceable and our civil servants have
embraced it with admirable relish.
To develop the complete Closed Loop
solution, HMRC collaborated with us
from the top down. The service was only
formally launched in April 2010 and we
were awarded the Central Government
contract four months later.
A measure of the progress we have
made is that since then over a billion
sheets of Closed Loop paper have been
produced with total sales exceeding
£3 million. In that time, virtually all of
HMRC’s copier paper has been recycled to
produce 2 million reams of ‘new’ paper.
Compared to the production and
manufacture of virgin bright white copier
paper, this equates to:
n
CO
2
emissions reduced by 3,373
tonnes (70%);
n
Energy consumption savings of 40.6
million kilowatts (60%);
n
Water consumption savings of 226
million litres (50%); and
n
68,000 trees saved.
The scheme has been so successful
that the Government’s Procurement
Review Board plans to roll it out
to the entire Central Government
administration. It is expected that this will
generate sufficient volume to merit the
private sector construction of a recycling
mill here in the UK in the near future.
It will be the first of its kind and the
first new copier paper mill to be created
for generations, with the usual beneficial
implications for employment and
environmental efficiency.
Paymaster General, Cabinet Minister
Francis Maude, said: “Closed Loop will
deliver significant savings along with
environmental benefits too by ensuring
Government Departments move to using
recycled paper.”
The adoption of the Closed Loop
scheme by Central Government will
mean scores of other departments, not
just HMRC, will be recycling paper in this
unique way – 73,000 tonnes in total.
In the heady climate of this initial
success and with encouragement
from the Government, we are already
extending the Closed Loop scheme into
the private sector.
Private Sector Initiative
Banner already works with Virgin Media
and McDonalds and is confident of
gaining new private sector customers who
are keen to reduce costs and improve
their sustainability and environmental
credentials.
McDonalds has used Closed Loop
paper in its 1,200 stores and seven
offices nationwide and achieved savings
of £25,000 per annum, finding that the
recycled paper is not subject to the same
price volatility as virgin paper.
Virgin Media were keen to improve
their environmental credentials and
also joined Closed Loop last year. Katie
Chapman, Acting Head of Sustainability
at Virgin Media, said: “Banner approached
us with a completely new way of doing
things.We’re always looking to improve
the environmental credentials of the
paper we use and we felt that such an
innovative solution was a good fit with
our brand.”
In my view, organisations like banks,
insurers, credit card companies and retail
multiples that use large volumes of data-
sensitive paper should consider taking
part in this initiative.
With new, highly punitive, more-
or-less ubiquitous EU data protection
legislation coming into force in 2013,
now would be a very good time for
management of any organisation with
more than 250 employees to think about
keeping in The Loop.
www.bannerclosedloop.co.uk
Fresh from his success at the National Recycling Awards 2012, where
Banner Business Services was named Recycling andWaste Management
Business of the Year, MD Richard Costin explains why closed loop
recycling makes sense for private as well as public sector organisations.
Richard Costin, MD,
Banner Business
Services
Closed Loop Recycling in Numbers
n
Over
20,000 tonnes
of waste paper collected, shredded
and recycled.
n
Over
1 billion
sheets of 100% recycled Closed Loop paper
has been produced.
n
Production of Closed Loop paper more than doubled to over
2 million
reams in 2011.
n
For every tonne of Closed Loop paper purchased,
1.5 tonnes
of waste paper is captured.