Our support is mainly outlined in ‘responsible manufacturing’. Competitive industry and circular economy goes hand in hand with using resources efficiently and developing a circular economy. With increased efforts towards recycling materials including glass, plastics & aluminium, we can become more resource-efficient and less emission intensive as energy needs decrease further. New materials and ways of using existing materials will play an important role.
- Recycling Raw Materials
At BA Systems, we recycle all our waste on site and at our manufacturing facilities. This includes a variety of materials such as glass, plastic, cardboard, and aluminium.
We use a significant amount of aluminium products which is positive in that aluminium is 100% recyclable and 75% of aluminium ever produced is still in use! Our efforts in recycling aluminium will ensure that we save resources and become less emission intensive as the need for new materials decreases, reducing emissions.
2. Reducing Packaging
Our efforts to reduce packaging is another measure we have taken. In addition to reducing greenhouse glass emissions by recycling materials, plastic waste is becoming a widely recognised problem. While it is an important material for our economy, providing benefits to modern day living, it can take years to biodegrade. It also takes up valuable space in landfill sites and is polluting the natural environment, having a significant impact on our oceans. The majority of plastic waste does not get reused or recycled and experts believe that 50% of plastic is single-use, meaning it is used once and then discarded! Single-use plastic includes packaging.
In efforts to support the reduction of plastic, we ensure that cardboard is used to protect goods where necessary as an alternative to using plastic. Interestingly cardboard takes up to 3 months to biodegrade as opposed to plastic which can take up to 6 months and even years. Whilst we acknowledge that we do still use plastic, we are looking at ways to reduce the amount used and find other alternatives such as foam protection where the environmental impact of manufacturing it is minimal.
3. Environmental Audits
Our yearly ISO Audits ensure that we are constantly aligning ourselves with environmental standards. ISO 1400 looks at standards relating to environmental management, looking at how our operations negatively affect the environment; comply with applicable laws, regulations, and other environmentally oriented requirements; and assesses how improvements are made to create minimal impact on the environment.
These assessments are made yearly and we have continually passed the audits, portraying significant improvement in our processes yearly as we constantly strive to become more aligned with environmental obligations.
