Oatally Mad about Recycling!

William Tracey Group, who also has a strong heritage, with the recycling business dating back to the 1900's, was able to take the recycling plan to the next step by carrying out an in depth audit of the waste streams produced at Nairn's 2 Edinburgh premises. From the audit, a number of waste streams which were going to landfill were identified as recyclable including a variety of sacks and bags previously considered contaminated.

Further, William Tracey were able to advise on more cost effective and carbon friendly uplifts, reducing the pick up of recycling bins from daily uplifts to 1 per week and delivering materials to the company's manufacturing and recycling facility (MRF) in Broxburn where waste, which may have otherwise gone to landfill, is further sorted to recover any additional recyclate.

Perhaps the biggest success was identifying packaged food waste as a recycling stream. Food recycling is the latest in a wide range of services to be offered by the William Tracey Group and Nairn's Oatcakes are now recycling all of their packaged food waste into renewable energy through the process of Anaerobic Digestion. The process uses cultures of bacteria to break down the food and generate methane gas which is turned into electricity and an organic sludge which is used as fertiliser in the agricultural industry.

Russell Clink Environmental Manager of Nairn's Oatcakes said:

"The partnership with William Tracey has allowed us to approach our recycling operation in a planned and logical manner. The customer support has been really good, we are not afraid to try different approaches, confident that if something is not working as envisaged we can quickly implement changes as required."

Nairn's Oatcakes, who produce around 3.5 million oatcakes per day in their Edinburgh premises, are now well on their way to achieving zero waste status, diverting nearly 90% of all waste produced away from Landfill.
Sending very little waste to landfill means that Nairn's Oatcakes are also reducing their waste bills and this alone is great for business. With landfill tax increasing again in April 2012 to £64 per tonne, implementing a recycling plan in your business is a necessity if you wish to avoid further annual increases.

Michael Tracey, Managing Director, William Tracey Group said:

"Diverting those final waste materials from landfill can be the biggest challenge to our customers but that is where we use our expertise and knowledge to deliver results. We talk about taking our customers on the journey to zero waste because we recognise that the real value we can deliver is not only in the quick wins but in the longer term partnership which allows us to explore various options for difficult waste streams and work with the customers to source responsible routes for such materials, helping them meet and exceed their environmental goals."