Dennis Maps celebrates Recycle Week

This week is Recycle Week, the UK’s biggest celebration of recycling. “Recycle Week is a great reminder to celebrate recycling and promote its importance,” says Steve Burry, Managing Director of Dennis Maps. “We can all play our part when it comes to recycling. At Dennis Maps we’re committed to creating a sustainable business, through recycling and a host of other initiatives.” Here’s everything we’re doing to protect the planet, this Recycle Week and beyond.

Recycling at Dennis Maps

Recycling is a key part of our strategy to be more sustainable. We continually assess how to segregate our general waste streams, to cut down the amount of material that ends up in landfill. So far, we’ve separated card and paper waste streams into seven categories. Each category has a dedicated container, and the contents are recycled into a vast range of products, including tissue paper, cardboard boxes and lining paper. Non-recyclable waste is taken to a specialist centre, treated and subjected to high temperatures. The energy generated by this process is captured, turned into electricity and sent to the National Grid.

We’ve also got robust processes in place for managing print waste. We work with J&G Environmental, a print waste specialist, to manage the waste streams from printing. The company recycles much of our print waste. For example, our aluminium litho print plates are reused in the construction and motor industries, while plastic containers from our operations are turned into construction materials, such as drainpipes.

Three – two – one – (net) zero!

The most important part of our journey is our commitment to reaching net zero. So far, we’ve calculated our C02 emissions. This was a complex process that involved assessing every aspect of our business to provide an accurate picture of emissions. This helped us to determine which areas of the company needed improvements. As an example, we assessed emissions for our map cover boards and paper and made them carbon balanced. Now, we work with a World Land Trust programme and Climate Partner to offset these emissions. We’re working to cut our emissions too, and offsetting emissions we can’t remove.

A fashionable solution

At Dennis Maps we print more than two million maps and charts every year, which keeps our printing presses busy! Inevitably, the production process creates print waste, which we’re committed to reducing. Luckily, we’ve discovered a fashionable solution – recycling print waste into belts, bags and briefcases. Our printing blankets – which are used to move ink from printing plates to paper in large format litho presses – are collected by BFS Pressroom Solution and passed on to Elvis & Kresse. This award-winning company then turns them into high-end ethical accessories.

Setting the standard

As a company we’ve committed to a range of accreditations that help us constantly improve our environmental standards. We were proud to be awarded the ISO 14001 Environmental Management Standard, which helps us to be more environmentally responsible. More recently, we joined Two Sides as a partner member. This not-for-profit promotes the sustainability of paper, paper packaging and print globally. We’ve signed up to the organisation’s Mission and Principles, an agreement that commits us to reducing our environmental impact.

An ink-credible idea

Dennis Maps uses environmentally friendly printing inks too. All our paper products are printed using vegetable-based inks, which are kinder to people and planet than traditional inks are. They come from sustainably farmed plants, which cuts the amount of C02 in the atmosphere and reduces air pollution. Vegetable based inks are also much simpler to separate from paper during the recycling process.

A sunny solution

We’re pleased to say that around 40% of our total electricity consumption now comes from solar energy. This is thanks to the solar panels we had fitted on our factory roof. And that’s not all. All our factory lighting is provided by efficient LED bulbs, saving electricity. We’ve also fitted advanced harmonic filtration and power factor correction systems, to help sustain the performance and efficiency of our electric supply.

Our sustainable culture

We wouldn’t be where we are without support from inside and outside the business. Employees are always encouraged to share ideas about how we can become more environmentally friendly. “Sustainability is a shared goal and effort,” says Steve. “Our whole team is on a journey to becoming greener.” Crucially, our customers and suppliers support our journey too. One customer has inspired us by reaching net zero, and we’re committed to meeting our all our customers’ sustainability standards. In addition, we’re always communicating with our suppliers to find out about new products that can further progress our environmental journey.

On your bike

All our employees live near to our factory in the Somerset town of Frome. We encourage them to walk or cycle to work, where possible. We offer the Cycle to Work Scheme to support them to do this. The government-run programme helps people to buy a bike and cycling accessories tax free.

A greener future

We’ve already got lots of initiatives at Dennis Maps to help us go greener, but we’re always focused on the future, to keep improving for the benefit of people and planet.

Dennis Maps is one of the leading map printers in the world, producing more than two million maps and charts every year. We offer comprehensive pre-press services, large format print solutions using both large format litho printing and large format digital print technologies, plus specialised map folding and map finishing techniques.