Stephen Hawking, the world renowned scientist who sadly died on Wednesday, had huge fears about the effects of global warming on our precious planet. In fact he warned that it was one of the possible ways in which life on earth could be wiped out in just 200 years – the others being an asteroid strike, Artificial Intelligence, and over-population.

In July he said: ‘Our physical resources are being drained, at an alarming rate. We have given our planet the disastrous gift of climate change. Rising temperatures, reduction of the polar ice caps, deforestation, and decimation of animal species. We can be an ignorant, unthinking lot.’

The first Global Recycling Day on Sunday highlights the benefits of recycling on climate change, with the organisers explaining: “Climate change is the major, overriding, environmental issue of our time and the recycling industry is at the heart of the change that is needed to combat its devastating effects. Recycling (whether industrial or at home) saves more CO2 emissions each year than are generated by the entire aviation industry, while simultaneously protecting the earth’s valuable natural resources.”

Put simply, if we recycle a product rather than creating one from scratch, less harmful Greenhouse Gases are emitted and the earth’s natural resources are protected. Take, for example, that household essential: toilet paper. It takes 70% less energy and water to recycle paper than to create new paper from trees. Manufacturing with recovered paper cuts down on pollution that contributes to smog and ill health. And recycling one tonne of paper is said to save 17 trees and more than 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space.

Here at Chambers we recycle a minimum of 98 per cent of the waste we handle for our trade, construction and household customers – be it plasterboard, aggregates, wood, metal, plastic, cabling and glass or paper and card. But we are also working hard to change attitudes towards recycling – it’s down to each and every one of us to reduce, reuse and recycle to help preserve our planet.

A recent episode of the BBC’s Blue Planet series exposed how a desperate lack of recycling is leading to eight million tonnes of plastic waste entering the world’s oceans each year, destroying marine life. The government reports that one million birds, and over 100,000 sea mammals and turtles die every year from digesting and getting tangled in plastic waste. One in three fish caught in the English Channel contains pieces of plastic. Only last week, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation reported that unless action is taken, the weight of plastic in the ocean will greater than the weight of fish.

Shockingly, only about one in 400 of the 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups, which contain a plastic layer, used each year in the UK are recycled.

In addition, on January 1, China introduced a ban on the import of plastic recycling, threatening to cause chaos at council recycling plants as plastic builds up. The UK has been sending plastic recycling to China for 20 years. Greenpeace reports that more than 2.7m tonnes of plastic waste has been shipped to China and Hong Kong since 2012 – two-thirds of the UK’s total waste plastic exports.

Chambers is committed to the responsible recycling of domestic and trade plastic waste – helping prevent devastation to our ocean life.

The plastics we sort are baled and sent to a specialist recovery operation, where it is sorted and separated, cleaned and granulated for direct reuse in the plastic manufacturing industry. If it can’t be recycled, it can be converted into a Residue Derived Fuel (RDF) for use in power stations to generate electricity.

We are pleased with the more positive news that the European Union is introducing an urgent plan to tackle plastic pollution in Europe, which includes ensuring that every piece of packaging on the continent is reusable or recyclable by 2030.

What plastic does Chambers recycle?
Bottles, including water, milk, shampoo, soap and bleach, plus any other hard plastic.

What does plastic recycled at Chambers become?
Bottles, new clear sacks, car parts, home composters, garden furniture, fleece jackets and hats or fibre filling for sleeping bags and duvets.

Any plastic residue that can’t be recycled is still a valuable resource. It is baled, wrapped and goes to a Waste to Energy plant to generate electricity.

For more information on our plastic recycling contact us on 01483 504 595 @ChambersRecycle

Chambers Group are very proud to announce that we are now FORS Silver Accredited. The Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme (FORS) is a voluntary accreditation scheme that promotes best practice for commercial vehicle operators. FORS is gaining recognition as the transport industry’s go-to accreditation scheme and encompasses all aspects of safety, efficiency, and environmental protection by encouraging and training fleet operators to measure, monitor and improve performance.

At Chambers we take safety very seriously and have been FORS Bronze accredited since 2014, this has been attributed to the hard work of our drivers, transport and workshop teams and are delighted to have now reached Silver status.

The FORS Standard defines basic requirements that must be met by fleet operators. There are four key areas to this standard: Management, Vehicles, Drivers & Operations. A successful audit provides reassurance that the operation is being run safely, efficiently and in an environmentally sound manner. FORS Silver accreditation is also aligned and fully compliant with Construction Logistics & Community Safety (CLOCS).

Staff in the office at Chambers Waste Management were in the festive spirit when they arrived for work on Friday, 15th December in their stylish knitwear to take part in Christmas Jumper Day 2017.

On the day staff also participated in a Christmas music sweepstake and raised over £100. An additional donation was made by the directors at Chambers, taking the final total amount raised for Save the Children UK to over £300.

Chambers were delighted to see the children of Shottermill Junior School in Haslemere enjoying their new clamber stack. As part of the installation the school needed to dig out all the old equipment and earth to make the ground ready for the new equipment, and we were happy to help out by providing a skip free of charge.

To fund the installation of the clamber stack the school needed to raise over £8500, which was achieved through numerous events, including Christmas and Summer Fairs, cake sales, quiz nights and a Halloween Monster Ball. Emma Crabb, School Business Manager also ran a marathon in July which raised £1588 towards the cost. So it was a great relief to the school to be able to save some of the waste removal costs associated with the installation and ensure that more of their hard earned funds could be spent on the play equipment.

This is the first piece of new equipment for the children and they are hoping to raise an additional £20,000 to get more sports and playground equipment! Emma thinks she may have to do a bit more running, possibly an Iron Man next time!