It’s no secret. The world is facing a climate emergency and every day we bear witness to its impact. In the past few months alone, the headlines have been filled with tales of extreme heat in Canada, wildfires in Greece, floods in Europe, and record-breaking temperatures in the UK and Ireland. This isn’t something we can put off until tomorrow. If we want to win the climate race, we all need to leave a greener footprint.
At Panda, we don’t believe in making empty promises. We believe in taking action. That’s why we are committed to finding new and creative ways to reuse, repurpose and recycle your business waste, including…
- ‘Bottle to bottle’ recycling: Every year, Ireland sends 20,000 tonnes of plastic bottles to the UK and Europe for processing. At Panda, we think it’s time to change the status quo, and are using a new ‘Bottle to Bottle’ recycling plant to do it. Phase 1 of this €20 million project was approved in August this year, and will see our new specialist plant process up to 35,000 tonnes of waste. That’s enough to serve Ireland’s entire market. All bottles are washed and shredded before being sent to an external centre and turned into – you guessed it, more plastic bottles! Due to open in 2022, not only does this new plant remove the need to send Irish bottles overseas, we’re commissioning Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and electric refuse collection vehicles to help make this process as green and clean as can be.
- Greenrock to line new Irish roads: The supplier of choice for sites up and down the country, every year Panda collects around 100,000 tonnes of construction and demolition material (concrete, ceramic, tiles, bricks and stone). Because Ireland classifies these materials as ‘waste’, as a nation we recycle only a fraction of the 70% EU target. Not so with Panda. Earlier this year we secured a licence from the Environmental Protection Agency to divert construction and demolition material from landfill and turn it into ‘greenrock’. Crushed, screened and separated, it’s the perfect underlay for new Irish roads!
It is because of initiatives like these, that we know 100% of the materials we collect are destined to do great things. That’s just the beginning. Not only does Panda provide environmentally friendly waste management and utility services, we want the systems and processes that underpin them to be equally green. So we’re investing in:
- A new CNG fleet: Representing 4% of the vehicles on Irish roads and 30% of the emissions, heavy goods vehicles are an environmental nightmare. Determined to remedy this, Panda’s first CNG trucks hit the road in January this year. Replacing six diesel vehicles, we chose CNG because it cuts carbon emissions by 22% and levels of nitrogen oxide and sulphur dioxide by 70% and 80%. Of course, to build a CNG fleet and encourage others to do the same, we need to make sure they’ve got somewhere to re-fill. So we teamed up with Gas Networks Ireland to build two public, fast-fill CNG stations. Found on the North and South side of the city (in Ballymount and Finglas) natural and compressed gas is available to commercial and public vehicle owners right at the pump.
That’s just the start of our Sustainability and CSR strategy. If you want to find out more about our business practices, commercial waste processing or how Panda can help your company be greener and cleaner, get in touch with our team today.
