Environment

Building a fit for purpose business

View our Global Vision

Brother leading the world in Ruabon

In addition to the direct impact of the operations at our Brother UK office in Greater Manchester, we achieve positive environmental impacts through our relationships with others in the Brother Group, particularly Brother Industries UK. For this reason, we are showcasing the work of Brother Industries UK, who help us to provide sustainable product end-of-life solutions to our customers. They also enable us to strive for the environmental protection embodied by the Brother Earth philosophy.

The ‘circular economy’ is a concept that the Brother Group are contributing to turning into reality. It involves closing the materials loop so that waste materials don’t fall out of the end. It is about moving away from the traditional linear economy of make, use, dispose. It is about “designing out” waste from the product life cycle, recovering and regenerating products and materials at the end of each service life.

Toner cartridge recycling

Our site in Ruabon, North Wales, is the specialist site for toner recycling, sharing expertise and knowledge throughout the company on a global scale. Their facility operates a zero waste to landfill policy - when an empty toner cartridge reaches them, absolutely no waste ends up in landfill. Brother Industries UK, and their subsidiary in Slovakia, recycle 1.8 million toner cartridges each year from across Europe.

Join us in protecting the environment

Recycle your inks and toners

Valpak have provided waste management and recycling services to us since 2012, they help us deliver our aim of Zero Waste to Landfill certification.

Benefits to Brother UK:

In collaboration with Valpak, we work hard to document and change our waste management procedures for our different waste streams. This allows us to treat the waste streams earlier in the process, ensuring that we meet our zero waste to landfill commitment. This certification is important for many of our customers, who stipulate such environmental conditions in their own purchasing policies.

Benefits for Valpak:

Valpak find new solutions to help us achieve zero waste to landfill and these are now available to other clients with similar waste streams. Valpak also use Brother as an example of best practice to their customers, sharing our process of achieving and maintaining the standard.

Some measures we have introduced:

Reduced the use of pesticides, which should help encourage field mice
Kept vegetation at a manageable level at rear of site adjacent to riverbank to encourage frogs and other semi-aquatic species
Installed a water butt to water flowers and bulbs on-site
Installed a garden composter for all gardening waste to use as a fertiliser
Disposable plastic cutlery has been replaced with bamboo at our onsite canteen to reduce plastic waste
Installed commercial water machine at our onsite canteen and removed plastic cups – encouraging colleagues to refill bottles and reduce plastic waste
Replaced six wooden picnic benches with 100% recycled plastic benches (each bench uses the equivalent of 83,500 plastic bottle tops that are recycled from UK plastic waste)
Clear sign posting on recycling bins to enhance colleagues understanding
Fluorescent tubes have been replaced with LED lighting

We have achieved strong environmental accreditations

View our Company Policies

It's a wrap

We supported WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme), a recycling week, from 25th September to 1st October 2017. During this period, we held activities to encourage and promote recycling to our colleagues, giving them ideas of things they could do, not just in the office but also at home. The main event was a competition for the best use of recycled cardboard.

Conservation day

We have an ongoing partnership with Tameside Greenspace and help them to improve and maintain woodland and greenspace areas, pollution control, improve biodiversity, woodland/canopy cover, landscape diversity and visual impact.

Teams of colleague’s volunteer to maintain and provide more sustainable areas in Tameside, making a positive impact on our woodland, greenspace, wildlife and community. The Greenspace team rely on our volunteers as without them they would not be able to fulfil the pledge and strategies within it.

Biodiversity

Brother UK carried out a biodiversity conservation audit of its site in Audenshaw and identified those habitats and species that would benefit from particular management or actions. Using this information, a Biodiversity Action Plan was developed which identified how we could improve biodiversity within the landscaped and wooded areas. The plan continues to help safeguard the biodiversity of the landscape and its inhabitants. It also helps to raise awareness and to ensure its long-term success.