Renewed relationship

An Ikea store's ongoing efforts to reduce its carbon footprint have resulted in a renewed relationship with waste handling and recycling equipment supplier, Greenbank.

The Gateshead branch of the Swedish furniture store is using a Greenbank compactor to reduce the volume of restaurant waste that cannot be recycled. Now, instead of having a skip collected 16 times a month (and more over Bank Holiday weekends and peak trading periods), a waste collecting company calls just once a week.

Kylie Wilson, environmental specialist at the North East Ikea branch, says: "Larger scale initiatives include changing our product packing to reduce the size. This means we can get more onto each wagon, thus reducing the total number on the road." Greenbank didn't just provide advice and supply the compacting machine, but helped finalise details for a concrete pad on which to stand the machine and put the company in touch with a firm that would collect its compacted bales.

Kylie Wilson adds: "We had dealt with Greenbank in the past and received good service and the solution they offered this time has proved to be an ideal one for us. It is greatly reducing our transport costs."