Case Study
No pottering around
with recycling waste
The ceramics industry is often regarded as having a ‘dirty’ reputation when it comes to environmental
issues and recycling. Pat Griffin, health, safety, environmental and training manager at ceramic tableware
manufacturer, Steelite International, explains what the company is doing to improve its eco record.
Pat Griffin
Health, safety, environmental
and training manager
Steelite International
M
anufacturer of
ceramic tableware,
Steelite International, has
been working hard for
many years to reduce its
impact on the local and
global environment and been concentrating
on the reduction of waste going to landfill as a
top priority.
The company, which is privately owned
and employs more than 650 people in the UK
as well as 89 employees overseas, established
teams during the final years of the last century
to look at different aspects of the waste that
the company produced.
It then set up several energy teams to run
simultaneously with the aim of getting the
figure for waste leaving the site recycled
up to 75%: a major achievement since the
ceramics industry is often regarded as having
a ‘dirty’ reputation.
The company’s core ceramic tableware
products are manufactured at its factory in
Stoke-on-Trent where up to half a million
pieces of ware are made every week.
The company’s mission statement
says: “Our mission is to be the hospitality
industry’s preferred choice for tabletop
products, achieved through the combination
of inspirational design, excellent quality and
outstanding service while minimising our
environmental impact.”
The big step change to take this further
came in 2007 when Steelite made an £85,000
investment into a Lamella separator for the
reclamation of clay waste from water.
To the company’s knowledge, this had
never been done before, anywhere in the
world. This type of filtration system had
only been proven to work in the quarrying
industry. This was a leap of faith for Steelite,
but one that has changed the mindset of the
company forever.
The system went in with the object being to
reclaim waste clay from all the water leaving
the site and then to reintroduce this back into
the body as a three per cent secondary raw
material.
Once the plant was commissioned; the
experiments began. This was a long and slow
process of adding gradual amounts back into
The next environmentally friendly target for the company is potentially a further energy reduction along with a switch to more renewable energy sources
the system and checking quality and durability
for positive and negative gains.
The end result was agreed at a mixed rate
of six per cent per reclaimed raw material for
the best durability and quality results; with the
added and unexpected result being that with
the reclaimed material mixed in at six per
cent, the product was more durable than with
pure virgin material.
The facts as they stand today:
• By running the Lamella plant Steelite saves
approximately 400 tonnes of fine body
material from going to land fill per annum
• For every one tonne of virgin body material
delivered to the factory the suppliers quarry
and process 10 tonnes of soil
• This means that Steelite’s saving of 400
tonnes equates to a quarrying and process
saving of 4,000 tonnes along with transport
to the company’s site from Devon and
Cornwall of 400 tonnes. The previous
settling plant that Steelite used to remove
Steelite made an £85,000 investment in a Lamella separator for the reclamation of clay waste from water
8 October 20 2011
the solids from the wastewater was heavily
reliant on chemicals to aid settling in
large tanks. This is not necessary now as
the Lamella plant works with unmodified
water and no chemicals; meaning the
wastewater is purer when it is sent to drain
• The cost saving made on raw material has
helped the company’s ability to supply
customers worldwide at a competitive price
from a UK source.
Steelite has also implemented the following:
• It recycles 100% of pitcher waste (broken
crockery) through the waste being ground
down into a secondary raw material
for another local company to use in the
production of floor tiles using a dust
pressing process. This reduces the amount
of raw materials being quarried and
processed for manufacturing
• 100% of used plaster moulds are reused
as raw material for reintroduction into the
gypsum industry for the manufacture of
plasterboards
• Cardboard is collected fortnightly for
recycling as is all waste office paper
• All scrap metal is sorted via waste carriers
by type and then recycled through local
metal product manufacturers, although
a large amount of this is currently being
bought by the Chinese market
• The general waste is hand sorted by waste
carriers to reclaim over 70% for recycling,
with the remainder going for incineration
to create electricity. This also is done at a
local plant
• All the refractory waste (materials that
are resistant to heat) is reclaimed by
a local stone yard and is resold once
crushed down as a general aggregate; this
is mostly used for the base material for
modern road laying
w w w. re c y c l i n g w a s t e w o r l d . c o . u k
• Steelite now buys the majority of its office
furniture from a specialist office furniture
reclamation shop (The Office Furniture
Shop), which buys second-hand office
furniture and equipment and then resells it
after grading it
Once furniture has been bought from them,
they take away the furniture the bought
goods are replacing, re-grade it and again
sell it on
• Steelite shares its ideas and demonstrates
what it has achieved through spreading the
word as widely as possible.
This is carried out mainly through local
groups such as the British Ceramic
Federation (BCF) and the North Staffs
Health and Safety Group; both of which
Steelite is an active member.
At the beginning of September, Steelite
had its first ‘Green Week’; a week dedicated
to informing its employees what the
company does to protect the environment.
It was also a good opportunity to show the
local councils and trade associations the
importance of recycling.
Steelite also ran a number of competitions
to improve employee involvement in the green
week. These included a children’s colouring
competition that went down well.
The next aim for the company is
potentially a further energy reduction and a
switch to more renewable energy sources.
This is an area that all large, energy
intensive companies are, or should be, looking
at with the current uncertainty in the energy
pricing and fluidity of the energy market.
The carbon price floor tax may make Her
Majesty’s Revenue and Custom happy, but
will no doubt hit industry hard; especially
those who are not in a sector that gets large
RWW
tax breaks on energy.
Recycling
&WASTE
WORLD