Helping customers meet sustainability goals

Northwood Hygiene Products is helping customers to meet their waste reduction targets with the launch of another recycling service.

The Telford-based business has expanded its Green Loop initiative and is now offering a dispenser recycling service. Under the scheme, Northwood will remove old soap and paper dispensers from customer premises and recycle them when customers sign up for Northwood’s Raphael dispensers.

The plastic recovered from the dispensers will then be recycled into pellets, which will be used to make children’s toys, garden furniture and playground flooring – all helping to divert more plastic from landfill.

Joel Quick, sustainability manager at Northwood, says: “Sustainability remains very high on our agenda and, as a major player in professional hygiene, we want to do even more to help our customers to reduce waste by making sure their old dispensers don’t end up in landfill. It’s so much better for the plastic to be turned into raw materials that can then be used to create new products.

“We are making great strides with our plastic reduction programme and are now removing more than 67 tonnes of plastic a year from our supply chain, which we think is a terrific achievement.”

As part of its pledge to reduce plastic, Northwood has also re-engineered its dispensers and the back plates are now made from recycled material.

Northwood’s wider strategy includes its ‘Green Loop’ closed loop end of life plastic recycling solution, which now has more than 150 users on board. Customers can simply remove the plastic inserts from the cardboard core when a roll is finished and drop it into a dedicated recycling bin before being returned to Northwood. The plastic inserts are then recycled to make new raw material which can be used for future inserts.

Northwood is committed to manufacturing products with as little environmental impact as possible. Committed to a circular economy, Northwood is one of a handful of companies in the UK that is fully vertically integrated, meaning it sells as well as converts parent reels. 75% of Northwood’s products are made from recycled paper and all of Northwood’s paper mills now produce Forest Stewardship Council (FSC®) certified base sheet paper.