Member Article

Joint venture saves money and the environment

Two of the biggest names in UK wood and waste recycling have joined forces to launch a new business targeting public and private sector customers across the South East.

From a base in St Albans, Hertfordshire, Timberpak Pearce Ltd will collect waste wood from industrial users and civic amenity sites as well as accepting direct deliveries from customers.

Timberpak was established 15 years ago and sources waste wood for its sister company EGGER UK – whose chipboard production sites in Northumberland and Ayrshire are the largest users of recycled timber in the
UK wood panel industry.

In this, its first-ever joint-venture, it will work with long-standing supplier Pearce Recycling. A family-owned business established in 1869, the company is part of the Pearce Group – a leading provider of recycling solutions for paper, cardboard, plastic, glass, wood and metal cans – that has supplied recycled wood fibre to EGGER’s Hexham and Barony plants for more than 12 years.

With existing sites in Yorkshire, North East England and Southern Scotland, Timberpak operates a fleet of specialist
collection vehicles including hook loader, waste
ejector and curtain sided vehicles. It can also arrange collection of palletised or bulky waste wood nationwide through third party hauliers.

Director Mark Hayton said: “Producing waste is a fact of life. However, by managing what we do with it, we can make a significant environmental contribution – in line with our far-reaching environmental policy which assures our customers that nothing we receive at any of our depots goes to landfill.

“Timberpak’s existing sites are certified to ISO9001 for quality management, ISO14001 for environmental management and BS OHSAS 18001 for occupational health and safety systems – and we will be pursuing similar accreditations for this new business as a matter of course.

“This joint venture with Pearce Group means we now have the ability to process, across the four sites, a total of 375,000 tons of recycled wood per annum – and with EGGER UK now able to source 90% of its requirement from us.

By opening up this part of the UK we are able to spread our net wider, access the nationwide wood market and thus benefit from regional variances in supply volumes etc. We can now also offer more of our haulage partners the security of back loads and lower empty-running miles.“

Simon Pearce Managing Director of Pearce Group added: “Working alongside Mark and his colleagues for many years has left us in no doubt that Timberpak is a good fit for our wood recycling business.

“We are both family-owned operations and firmly believe that managing waste in a sustainable way, optimising recycling and re-use ought to be a business imperative for companies large and small.

“Sending timber waste to landfill should be the last option, and customers of Timberpak Pearce can rest assured that their waste wood is processed and disposed of in the most environmentally-friendly manner possible.

“And even if we can’t use all of our customers’ waste wood for recycling and subsequent chipboard production, we can still collect, grade and manage waste such as MDF and contaminated wood.

“They can save money compared to their current waste wood option by avoiding landfill taxes, and our service is likely to be both more convenient and takes away the headache of having to find sources to take waste wood.

“And let’s not underestimate the satisfaction of knowing that quality post-consumer waste wood with a second life as a kitchen cabinet, desk or other chipboard product is locking away CO2 and a far better use of a precious natural resource than burning it or sending to landfill.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Gavin .