Case Studies: Snow Centre

Cardboard waste management now an easy run for snowsports centre

The UK’s biggest snowsports centre has been saved from an avalanche of cardboard waste thanks to the help of Greenbank.

To help manage waste from its catering and retail operations more effectively, The Snowcentre, in Hemel Hempstead, has installed a baler supplied by the Middlesbrough-based recycling specialists.

Since it was installed in January this year, the centre has seen a 50% reduction in the amount of waste that is put into its bins and collections have gone down from three times a week to once every three weeks for the baled cardboard.

Keith Griffin, Commercial Manager of The Snow Centre - which cost £23m to build and boasts 8000m2 of real snow slopes including a 160m main slope and Britain’s largest indoor lesson slope of 100m - said that installing a baler had been on the cards from day one.

“When we opened last May our long-term objective was to have a baler but at that stage we weren’t sure how much waste we would be generating,” he explained.

“We soon found that over half of the waste being put into the bins was cardboard. Sometimes it was folded, sometimes not which meant the bins filled up quickly and more often than not there were piles of cardboard on the ground beside the bins which was quite unsightly.

“Now we have the baler it is not only very easy for staff to dispose of any cardboard as they don’t even have to fold it, the bin area is also incredibly tidy!”

The wider environmental benefits of recycling its cardboard also influenced the centre’s decision to opt for a baler.

“We started out with six separate 1100 litre bins for all our waste which didn’t really help our green credentials so we’ve been tackling all of our waste streams since we opened,” he added.

“Our glass recycling has already been sorted out and now our cardboard has too. The next aim is our plastic waste, which Greenbank has told us we can also use the baler for so we will be training staff to segregate waste to make this work effectively.”

Keith is not only impressed with the new baler he is also very pleased with the service he has received from Greenbank.

“I would be happy to recommend them to anyone,” he said. “Even though they are based in the North East and we are just outside London the distance has been no problem.”

Greenbank’s Sales Director, Robin Evershed, said it was very satisfying to provide a customer with a solution that will save them
money as well as staff labour time.

“The baler is ideal for any operation or business that generates large amounts of cardboard and plastic waste,” he commented.

“It provides an easy and hassle-free way for staff to recycle which means environmental targets can then be met.”