In 2013 Cummins Darlington Engine Plant (DEP) won the Chairman’s Award for the Environment for the second year in a row.
This year the award focussed on reuse at the DEP site rather than the traditional method of pallet recycling and disposal of wood waste. It was understood that a number of the pallets delivered to site, particularly the bespoke engine block pallets from the American Rocky Mount and Columbus engine plants, could be reused rather than being crushed and sent for pallet recycling.
RPS has worked closely with Cummins DEP to implement a reuse process in order to collect, sort, inspect and prepare the wooden pallets for reuse at the American engine manufacturing plants. The pallet returns started for the Rocky Mount site in 2012 and expanded to include the Columbus site in 2013, increasing the overall number of wooden pallets made available for reuse.
Figures published by Cummins reported that prior to the reuse service being introduced up to 91 tonnes of wood was crushed and recycled each month. The tonnage figure dropped by 18% after the initial return for reuse process was implemented. This has further reduced since commencing the pallets returns to the Columbus site.
With RPS managing the return of used pallets, Cummins has been able to drive it’s no waste to landfill percentage to an impressive 98% of wastes being reused or recycled.
For information on site collections of pallets and ways in which your business can achieve similar targets relating to wooden pallet reuse and recycling, please get in touch. Call us on 01642 465556 or fill in our online contact form.
