National Recycle Week 17-23 October 2022
Every business produces waste & it is up to each individual business to consider how they reduce their impact on the environment.
By considering how they can recycle & or up-cycle their waste products, every business can make a difference to the environment.
Aside from being an Executive Assistant with Virtually Smart Ltd, I am also a partner in a motorcycle service & repair business with my partner & as you can imagine we do create waste such as oil, parts & metals.
Some of the parts we remove from the motorcycles are sadly non-recyclable, however a lot of the parts are. Here’s how we make a conscientious effort to be more mindful about our environmental impact.
Oil
ICE motorcycles still rely on engine oil, gear box oil, grease, etc to keep their working parts lubricated & in working order. When we service a motorcycle, the oil is changed to keep the engine in tip top condition. We use a company called Oil Monster to recover the oil, who then re-refine it & create another usable product.
Re-refinement of oil is a sophisticated process eliminating impurities from waste oil and returning a re-refined oil that is identical to or even better than some virgin based oils. This process of re-refining can be done multiple times, and has less impact than the refinement of crude oil and it uses less energy. (1)
Metal
Chains, sprockets, pegs, exhausts, brake discs, etc are all changed from time to time & they do produce a surplus amount of metal. Some of the brake discs are upcycled into clocks & shelf supports (can be seen in our reception) & other parts are recycled either by the scrap collection teams who visit the business park or by our onsite Womble!
When I say Womble, I mean one of the fabricators teenage sons. He has taken it upon himself to visit the site with his dad & with his trolley, he collects metal & batteries which he then recycles through the local scrap yards.
Metals can of course be stripped & re-processed into other metal products & batteries (as long as they are not too sulphated or damaged) can be recommissioned & re-purposed.
Parts
If a customer is upgrading a part, or panel, or dash/speedo, handlebars, switchgear, seat, etc, etc, this creates an abundance of excess parts. In the motorcycling world everything is worth something to someone & therefore these items can be sold on in a platform such as Ebay, or through online groups.
An example of how this can be a positive is the parts we have just removed from a Honda CB200. We are customising the motorcycle & the customer has asked us to resell the excess items & he would like the money to be donated to a Teenage Cancer Charity he supports. Therefore, in this case someone will benefit from the parts & a charity will benefit from the proceeds.
Tyres
Tyres have been being recycled forever. As part of our recycling processes, we have to pay for old tyres to be removed.
Every year tens of millions of tyres are disposed of in the UK. The UK produces around 55 million waste tyres a year. If tyres are not properly reused, recycled or disposed, waste tyres can:
- Have a negative impact on the environment
- Damage local communities, and
- Undermine legitimate businesses
For this reason, laws are in place to ensure that waste tyres are disposed of responsibly. Anyone who produces, imports, carries, keeps, treats or disposes of waste tyres must follow stringent legislation. (2)
But what are recycled tyres turned into? There are a myriad of products now being made from recycled tyres. From playground floors to garden edging, from stationary products to road compound’s, the list goes on & on.
Office furniture is upcycled
When we started the business I always believed in the idea of furniture upcycling. Therefore, my desk, chairs & bookcases at work & at home are all upcycled from a local office upcycling business.
We purchased all of the office (work & home) furniture from a company who are also a registered charity. They take in second hand office furniture & through a network of connections they then have opportunities for people who may be recovering from long term illness, or those returning to work after a long absence to work with them, getting the benefit of work skills & employment.
There are plenty of these upcycling centres across the UK & therefore, if you are looking to fit out a home office or are setting up a business office on a budget; consider purchasing upcycled furniture first & all of the benefits which go with it.
Reception is made of reclaimed wood & panels
The reception area at the workshop is made of mostly recycled materials. Sections of the walls are made of packing boxes, the reception desk has a pre-loved kitchen top, the front is made of reclaimed corrugated sheeting & the carpet is from a conference hall, sold in sections on Ebay.
Our shelves are made of reclaimed scaffold boards & the brackets are made of either old brake discs or old spanners welded into a shelf bracket.
Carboard recycling
As a business, we have a legal obligation to have a refuse collection. As part of our refuse collection we have a separate bin for cardboard. As we have to order parts often, we do produce quite a lot of cardboard boxes which are then recycled by the local authority refuse collection service.
Written by Katy-Jane Mason for & on behalf of Virtually Smart Ltd
