Celebrating Our Successful Baling Initiatives

At ILG, we’re committed to reducing the impact we have on the environment by further improving our recycling efforts. Baling is a mechanical process that compresses waste plastic or cardboard for easier, more sustainable storage and transport. Reducing the volume of waste makes it easier to process and is a good way to minimize waste collections, ease transport costs and cut vehicle emissions. After successfully introducing plastic baling in late 2023, we’ve not only met but exceeded our 2024 targets. Now, we’re setting even more ambitious goals for 2025 as part of our Zero-by-Thirty initiative to become a carbon-neutral business by 2030.

For 2024, we set ourselves an ambitious target to bale 400 tonnes of cardboard and 10 tonnes of plastic after managing to bale 391.16 tonnes of cardboard in 2023 and 4.24 tonnes of plastic in the last 3 months of 2023.

We’re delighted to say we exceeded our goals by baling 419.85 tonnes of cardboard and 22.305 tonnes of plastic in 2024 and have reviewed our progress and set our 2025 targets in collaboration with our team of  ILG Green Champions.

Our 2025 Baling Targets:

500 tonnes of waste cardboard and 26 tonnes of waste plastic.

We introduced the baling of plastic in October 2023 at our East Grinstead Unit A site. Following some inquires from one of our clients, the idea was raised at one of our regular Green Champion meetings and then taken on as a management project by one of our Operations Managers, Flavius Laiu.

We worked with our waste management partner Grundon to source a plastic baler and started to bale the waste plastics  produced at our Southern sites. In the first three  months, we managed to bale 4.24 tonnes. When we opened our second site in Northampton, ILG Brackmills 2, we installed both plastic and cardboard balers as part of our commitment to our Zero-by-Thirty initiative, and following a review of plastics at ILG Brackmills 1, also installed a plastic baler there.

Not only does the implementation of plastic balers at our sites reduce the cost of disposing of these waste plastics, but the plastics are now processed and repurposed into plastic bin bags, which we are able to buy at a much-reduced cost. This baling and repurposing of the waste ensures it undergoes  a full life recycle.

The use of these plastic bin bags helps with identifying our different waste streams within the warehouses – Green for Recycling, Clear for Plastics and Black for EfW (Energy from Waste). This also prevents our waste being blown in harsh weather or littering our sites when bins are emptied.

“This project has been an amazing opportunity to do something not just for us or the company but for our customers. Recycling is a hot topic and a lot of our customers have been asking what we are doing with their plastic waste. The answer now is that we are fully recycling all of the plastic. As we are able to use our own logistics to consolidate it into one central place, and because we use routes that are already planned, and the plastic weight is minimal and doesn’t affect fuel efficiency, we are not increasing our CO2 footprint. Our target was to recycle 500 kg per month, but we have averaged at 1.14 tonnes per month in the first 6 months. Another big benefit is that the recycled plastic is bought back as fully recycled bin bags in 3 different colors to support the sortation of waste in our operation.”

Flavius Laiu, Operations Manager, ILG

Our progress with baling in 2024 has been very positive and we are committed to continuing to find responsible ways to manage our waste and recycle and reuse as much as we can. By exceeding our baling targets and implementing recycling and waste solutions, we are actively reducing and reusing our plastic, cardboard and other waste. We continue to set our sights on higher goals for 2025 and remain dedicated to continuing to find new ways to minimize our environmental impact.