Cromwell’s Corporate Social Responsibility
Cromwell as a business has a company wide mission, to be the most resourceful company in plastics by supplying & manufacturing products that help make the world cleaner, greener, and more resourceful. We are continually exploring and implementing new methods to ensure we meet this vision and contribute to a circular company. We take many steps to help reach this goal, both within our company and with the local communities, all of which support the place where we live, work and the planet as a whole. Below are Cromwell’s sustainable steps, otherwise know as Corporate Social Responsibility measures, we put in place.
Polythene Recovery Service & CPR Manufacturing
In January 2020 Cromwell Polythene Ltd. expanded its UK manufacturing and recycling base with the acquisition of Moorgreen Flexible Packaging, a long-established recycling and extrusion facility based in Alfreton, Derbyshire. This business expansion increased the group’s capacity to recover and reprocess scrap polythene, furthering its ambitions to stimulate the circular economy of resources.
The move compliments Cromwell’s existing Polythene Recovery Service which facilitates the collection of used polythene packaging from customers and helps keep this valuable resource in the UK.
Our polythene recovery service is another way we help our customers to be more resource efficient. It keeps valuable resources within the circular economy by returning clean polythene packaging to the production cycle. Used polythene is collected from our customers, then recycled within the UK and extruded into more film products. This is one way we are increasing the recycled content of our products, in line with WRAP guidelines. This helps saves virgin materials in line with the principles of the circular economy and reduces landfill. Benefits for customers include reduction of waste disposal costs and access to regular reporting of packaging returns for recycling.
The Polythene Recovery Scheme is a 5-step scheme:
- Whilst delivering goods to our customers, we offer to collect any clean scrap polythene.
- This scrap polythene is then taken to our manufacturing facility and baled.
- This is then separated and sent through the recycling & re-processing machines.
- Here it is broken down, ready to be re-manufactured into new products.
- The new polythene products are then re-distributed to customers.
We have set ourselves an aim to recycle and re-manufactured 1,000 tonnes of recovered polythene with an aim increase our recovery and recycling to match outputs by 2030
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Energy Efficient Products
We are proud to say that we produce and supply products with the highest recycled content possible, that are also recyclable, reusable, or compostable. More specifically our CHSA accredited refuse sacks products are engineered to provide maximum performance using minimal resources. This not only helps to reduce the volume of plastic used, it also helps by cutting carbon emissions during production and transportation. Choosing Cromwell saves valuable resource, reduces haulage costs, saves storage space, and lowers CO2 emissions from transport.
Cromwell Polythene specifically choose suppliers who meet industry standards and supply EUCertPlast certified materials. We do this to ensure that all aspects of our recycling and processing of polythene, meets recognised industry and customer standards. EUCertPlast recognises the highest standards of material traceability, process control and quality of the recycled content in the end-product. This enables us to substitute virgin plastic with recycled materials through successful trials in a variety of industry sectors.
Resource Efficient Fleet.
Our resource efficiency is not limited to our products, we apply our circular goals throughout the business, extending to our fleet and transport strategy. Our new trucks have been specifically acquired because of their excellent eco-advantages, helping us meet our company mission to be the most resourceful company in plastics. Our trucks won Transport News magazine’s prestigious ‘Truck of the Year 2021’. The next generation TGX model saves up to 8.2 % fuel due to its economic Euro 6d engines, improved aerodynamics and other efficiency-enhancing innovations such as the new rear axle.
Our new trucks are also installed with a new innovative GPS technology which helps save on fuel and emissions by calculating and selecting the most economical journey. All this latest technology combined and working together helps us to reduce our environmental impact whilst delivering our resource-efficient products. We also now use a haulier who can offer deliveries on their energy efficient, 100% electrical vehicle .
Company-wide Clean and Litter Pick Days
Being a company in the waste management and recycling sector, we are always keen to advocate and support anti-litter campaigns. We take part in annual clean-ups, such as the GB Spring Clean organised by Keep Britain Tidy and the September Beach Clean run by the Marnie Conservation Society. Each year we organise several teams to carry out litter picks in our local communities and on the East-Coast. These are activities are close to our heart and we feel it is important to take part, help promote a cleaner, greener world and encourage responsible waste management and correct recycling methods.
Sponsorship of Local Teams & The Community
As well as being keen supporters of industry events and campaigns, we are also very proud of our local community and help support their events, campaigns and teams. We are very proud supporters of the 2 local football teams – Sherburn White Rose and Sleetmoor United. Whilst this is our 1st year sponsoring the Sleetmoor united team, it is out 5th sponsoring Sherburn White Rose. As well as paying for the players kit, we also carry out litter picks with them and attend their matches, to support the young footballers. In late 2023, we became members of ‘We are Sherburn‘ – a local business networking group in the area, which helps provide support for organisations and the community of Sherburn in Elmet.
We have sponsored and helped to fund bins on the local industrial estate, where we found an excessive amount of litter during past litter picks, this was in support of Selby District Council’s Clean Drivers Scheme.
In 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, a local team of volunteers set up a new litter picking group to help tackle the mounting levels of litter in the area and named themselves the Sherburn in Elmet Wombles. Keen to help we donated a box of large refuse sacks, alongside some litter pickers to help the team carry out their litter picking. We also donated refuse sacks to local events such as the Sherburn in Elmet Gala and the Craft & Food Festival, to help encourage responsible clean up in the local area.
In 2019, Cromwell Polythene supported a new recycling on the go initiative for Leeds city centre – ‘Leeds By Example’, which is a collaboration between Leeds City Council and clean-up charity Hubbub. We supplied the cause with some of our products to aid recycling, donating over 20,000 bags made from recycled material to support the campaign over its six-month duration.
Sustainable Office
In late 2019, we become the first occupants on the new Sherburn2 Enterprise Park in Yorkshire. Our new home is a brand-new purpose-built headquarters and distribution facility. The building was built with resource and eco-efficiency in mind, and to function as an environmentally friendly hub for operations.
When constructing our new building we knew Photovoltaic solar panels were a proven method to generate on site renewable energy. The photovoltaic effect is commercially utilised for electricity generation and as photosensors. This means the sun light hits the sensors in between panels and creates an electric change, which then gets filtered into the building. With the introductions of the solar panels, we now consume a much smaller amount of energy and in bright weather condition, we supply energy back to the grid. The solar panels have proved to be a great energy saver for our new building, and we even have the capacity to install even more in the future.
Every light in the new building was Installed and connected to a sensory system. These lights switch off when no movement is detected after around 5 minutes and automatically switch back on when movement occurs. These lights are all LED, which compared to the traditional filament or fluorescent tubes, consume a lot less energy. Modifying the lighting system with energy consumption in mind, has been a great way to manage the building sustainability.
In our secure carpark we have installed EV charging points for electric and hybrid vehicles. With an increasing demand and a greater supply of these types of cars, we knew it would be something that will become the norm in most carpark in future years. These electrical charging points can be used by our staff and visitors at no additional cost.
We have also incorporated a new State-of-the-art Building Management System with heat recovery for optimum efficiency. This innovative facility learns how long it takes to heat the building and determines the most energy efficient way to warm the building and maintain its temperature. The smart sensors enable the system to automatically turn on, adjust and turn off, during evenings, weekends and in extreme temperatures. The heat recovery units in the ceilings reduce the levels of heat loss and help to ensure that the heat circulating in the building is kept warm and filtered back in the rooms.
Focusing on water, we installed Urico Urinals in the male toilets to reduce water consumption. We also installed Zip Hyrdo taps in our kitchen areas. These are instant boiling and chilled taps, installed to reduce water wastage and the energy consumption that is consumed when using kettles.
The 50,000sqft distribution warehouse, was designed and built with smaller and taller isles to accommodate for more space in a compact area, allowing us to stock more effectively and use less land.
As a company we are also committed to a Power efficiency and investing in carbon credits. We annually submit a carbon report, which includes factors such as car milage and carbon emissions. We also plan to provide the solar panels readings, and any other energy saving reports. These can help us gain insight into true carbon contributions. With this information we can purchase an accurate amount of carbon credits from the Carbon Trust, offset the correct amount carbon and move towards carbon neutrality.
More recently we have introduced a digital sign in system for both employees and visitors, replacing the paper sign in sheets, which will help us reduce our paper consumption.
