Improving sustainability outcomes

EVERYONE IS striving to become more sustainable in today’s environmentally-aware world. Businesses in particular need to display a “green” mindset to customers and convince them they are serious about reducing their environmental impact.

Yet those same businesses are often major consumers of disposable products – many of which are used for cleaning and hygiene purposes. Paper rolls, hand towels, surface wipers – and of course, toilet tissue – are all consumed in huge quantities in workplace environments.

So, what can be done to reduce their use?

Industrial workshops

Industrial workshops are a major consumer of paper because these environments tend to generate a great deal of dirt. Operatives here will spend much of their day working with messy substances such as paint, oil, solvents, engine fluids and grease. 

Excess quantities of these substances will then need to be removed from surfaces, equipment, components and the hands of employees.

Textile rags were once widely used for this purpose. But these would be delivered to the workshop in large bundles, taking up vast amounts of transport and storage space. They would then need to be sorted before use which would be both time-consuming and inefficient. 

Disposable wipers have now largely replaced rags in many workshops, freeing up space and improving productivity. However, workshop managers can substantially reduce their use of disposables simply by choosing the right type of system for their premises.

Many purchasers in this sector opt for wipers in loose rolls because they are considered to be a low-cost, convenient and portable solution. However, the reality is very different.

Loose rolls tend to go missing either because they have been mislaid, pilfered or allowed to roll onto the floor where they become wet, soiled and unusable. Operatives will then waste valuable time hunting around for a wiper roll when they need one. And this could slow down the manufacturing process and result in poorer productivity, while much of the product will be lost.

Our own research from July 2019 has revealed that 44% of machine operators need to break off from what they are doing at least 20 times a day to fetch or dispose of wipers. According to the same study, 74% of machine operators will take more wiper than they need to avoid having to fetch more if the source is not placed conveniently close to hand. And 90% said their work satisfaction would be enhanced by having professional industrial wipers located close by.

Once the operative has managed to locate a usable wiping roll they are likely to tear off a long length of paper to avoid having to repeat the process. Not all of this paper will be required, and this means much of it will be wasted.

So, all disposables should be housed in dispensers designed to naturally reduce consumption so that each operative only takes out the paper they need for the task in hand. These dispensers should be conveniently located and should also protect the product from moisture, oil and grease before use to prevent wastage. 

Catering and hospitality

The hospitality sector is particularly ripe for change, with recent research carried out by Datassential revealing that 70% of restaurant-owners consider it to be a priority to improve sustainability outcomes.

Customers feel the same. According to the same study, 57% of diners believe the food service industry can have a significant impact on the environment. And 21% of customers claim they will go out of their way to eat at a restaurant with high sustainability credentials.

The use of disposable products is particularly high in hospitality environments because disposable cloths and wipers are often considered to be more hygienic than reusable alternatives. Paper napkins are also often preferred on tables and counters because these are a convenient solution that helps to reduce laundry bills.

Once again, the use of paper products can be significantly reduced with the aid of smart dispensing systems. Disposable wipers for cleaning surfaces, wiping the hands and mopping up spills in the kitchen are often supplied in the form of loose rolls strewn around the surfaces. 

But commercial kitchens can be just as chaotic as industrial workshops and wiper rolls will frequently go missing here, too - either because they have been borrowed, taken for someone else’s use or left to roll on to the floor.

Consumption of kitchen wipers can be dramatically reduced with the aid of a good dispensing system. For example, the Tork Reflex hand and surface wiping dispenser gives out sheets of paper singly, reducing paper consumption by up to 37% when compared with a centre feed system.

Many fast food outlets and takeaways offer disposable napkins with their meals, allowing diners to take out the napkins they need from the dispenser provided. However, the design of many napkin dispensers makes it difficult to withdraw a single napkin at a time. As a result, the customer will take out a clump of napkins and use just one or two, discarding the rest. 

Waste can be significantly reduced by supplying dispensers designed to give out napkins singly. 

Office sustainability

A great deal of paper tends to be used in offices – much of it in the form of documents and reports. The switch to digital systems is gradually changing this situation and written reports now tend to be filed away on a computer while most messages are sent via email rather than through the post.

However, the average office employee still creates around 2kg of waste each day,according to recent research. And approximately 70% of all office waste is recyclable. 

Large numbers of disposables are still being used in the workplace – not only from paper but also in the form of coffee cups, soft drink containers and packaging materials. Data from UK company Business Waste reveals that around 900g of paper-based products are used at work each day, while every office worker throws away an average of 156 plastic bottles a year.

Many offices are addressing these issues by reducing the number of documents being printed, implementing plastic-free policies and asking staff members to bring in reusable coffee cups rather than using throwaway ones. 

However, in the office environment – as well as in workshops and hospitality venues - a great deal of paper products will also be used in the washrooms.

These are, of course, private environments that are hard to police. But here again, the use of carefully-chosen dispensers will help to reduce the amount of toilet tissue and hand towels being used.

Washroom managers should avoid equipping their facilities with C-fold towels – particularly when these are placed on the sink units and left lying loose. This practice encourages people to take more towels than they need and they are also highly likely to drip their wet hands on to the other towels on the pile, rendering them unusable. 

C-fold towels are often housed in dispensers that are notorious for creating waste because it can be hard to take out only one towel from the unit at a time. As a result, each user will remove a clump of towels and the unwanted ones will then be discarded.

All hand towel systems should present the user with a single towel and this should be sufficiently absorbent to dry both the hands. This will help to control consumption and reduce over-usage.

Recycling paper towels

The use of paper towels becomes more sustainable than ever when they are recycled after use. Tork PaperCircle - the world’s first recycling service for paper towels - enables businesses to reduce their environmental footprint by 40% by creating a closed loop system for used washroom hand towels. The towels are collected by Tork PaperCircle sustainability partners and taken to local recycling centres where they are turned into other tissue products.

Conventional toilet rolls can also lead to paper waste because the rolls are unprotected before use and will quickly become unusable if they get wet or dirty. Washroom visitors may also be tempted to take more paper than they need from the roll, leading to over-consumption. 

Toilet tissue should therefore be housed in a dispenser such as the Tork SmartOne which protects the paper before use and that automatically limits the amount of toilet paper that people take out.

It is becoming increasingly important for customers to improve their sustainability and reduce their environmental footprint. However, the huge amount of data available can make it difficult for customers to make informed decisions for their businesses and support their own sustainability goals.

Essity has responded by launching Tork Focus4 Sustainability, a programme that promotes transparency and helps customers to meet their goals with accessible and reliable sustainability information. Tork Focus4 Sustainability provides a comprehensive summary of the key sustainability benefits of selected Tork systems. 

Reducing the quantity of disposable products used in working environments can be a major challenge. But businesses can succeed in doing so by taking advice from sustainable organisations and by installing dispensers and systems that have been expressly designed to reduce consumption.

Lee Radkzi is from Tork manufacturer Essity

For more information, visit www.tork.co.uk/reducewaste

Tel: 01582 677570