News
19-02-2008
Is your waste someone's raw material?
All marine companies produce some form of waste whether this be paper from offices or waste materials form a manufacturing process. Directives from Europe are seeking to reduce the amount of waste disposed of to landfill and encourage waste producers to reduce, reuse or recover so waste is moved up the hierarchy. One thing may be to consider if your waste product may be a useful raw material to someone else.
The National Industrial Symbiosis Programme (NISP) uses actual business opportunity as the way to encourage resource efficiency dealing with all resources including water, energy, materials, logistics, assets and expertise.
NISP is the world’s only national programme and is unique in that it is a business-led programme, responding directly to the needs of business, whatever sector that may be. It has 12 regional offices throughout the UK which are funded through the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs' Business Resource Efficiency and Waste Programme, the Scottish Executive, Welsh Assembly Government, Invest Northern Ireland and selected Regional Development Agencies.
The programme has been extremely successful and between April 2005 and December 2007 it has:
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diverted over 2.8 million tonnes of waste from landfill
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reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 2.8 million tonnes
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saved UK industry more than £97 million
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generated £120 million in additional sales for industry
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attracted £75 million in private investment
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avoided the use of 5 million tonnes of virgin materials
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reduced industrial potable water usage by more than 2.5 million tonnes
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eliminated 330,000 tonnes of hazardous waste
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created 587 jobs and saved 904 others.
The Green Directory
Since The Green Blue teamed up with Sailing Networks to produce The Green Directory this service has now expanded to include a 'recycle' element. This free service allows companies and individuals to advertise waste products they think someone else may benefit from.
The Directory also offers a chance to advertise goods for exchange and also has a car share page for those traveling to events, shows or popular boating destinations for the weekend.
» Visit The Green Directory's recycle pages
» National Industrial Symbiosis Programme
» Phoenix Spraydecks have found novel ways of reusing their offcuts, read more in our case study
