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UK Power Networks Achieves Massive Cuts on Waste

02 February 2011

UK Power Networks has jolted many industry experts who are amazed at the whopping decrease in the percentage of waste sent to landfill by the company from 80 percent to three percent.

Four years ago, the company's streetworks department launched a major recycling drive from its road excavations and has now managed to cut the amount sent to the landfill sites by its maintenance contractors from 80 percent to three percent, which consists mainly of contaminated materials that cannot be currently recycled.

Christopher Perkins, strategy manager for Commercial Services Streetworks at UK Power Networks, said: "When we started this initiative, we were disposing of about 300,000 tonnes of waste every year. We knew that this was not good for the environment, or our carbon footprint, and it was also costing the business money, so we looked at ways that we could recycle what we were excavating. As a company we are always investigating new ways to be sustainable."

UK Power Networks has established ties with local authorities, recycling plants and recycling agents, which help the firm in using recycled materials of very high standard and are approved by UK Accreditation Service (UKAS). The recycled materials are then put back to use to cover the trenches excavated by the company's maintenance contractors on the road.

This is no mean task and the initiative itself cannot run on decisions made overnight. Intensive planning preceded its launch, which grew steadily over a period of 4 years. The idea came about in a strategy meeting of the Streetworks department. At the time, the company was disposing off tonnes of waste a year from sites where UK Power Networks' three major maintenance contractors had to dig up the road surface to work on the underground electricity cables. And the company already in deliberations to reuse and act in the most sustainable way, and at the same time be cost efficient, hit on the idea of recycling soil, stones and other materials the company dug up. By 2009, it aggressively worked towards bringing the figure down to five percent and by 2010 it came further down to three percent.

The firm has certainly raised the bar in the industry and wishes to see a sustained recycling model. Christopher Perkins adds: "In the future we are determined to sustain this excellent achievement by continuing with the work we are currently doing, as well as striving to find ways to further reduce the small amount of waste that at the moment we are unable to recycle." He further explained that: "The Streetworks team see it as an integral part of their job to carry on working with the maintenance contractors, and encouraging them to use recycled materials rather than new."

It takes very high level of awareness and ecological consciousness to drive a company single mindedly towards achieving targets like these. And it can be the best pratice other organizations can adopt for a cleaner, safer environment.

Krishna Buddhiraju