Allied carpets is the UK’s leading Cartpet retailer with over 200 stores across the UK including several satelite warehouses. With a waste bill of over £1,500,000 a year Allied Carpets decided to benchmark their services and find a better way to deal with the waste their business produced each year.

Following a review by the green house it was discovered that over 60% of Allied Carpets waste was valuable recycling material that if in the right format could generate revenue for the business rather than costing it money to get taken away. It was also discovered that stores did not have the optimum solution for general waste and so costs were higher than necessary.

the green house were awarded the contract and took over the management of all waste and recycling services for Allied Carpets at the beginning of June 2008.

Within 2 months we had changed the services at all 220 stores to reflect the most efficient solution for each one individually and maximise their potential for recycling.

Secondly we have communicated with the management team and the entire workforce of Allied Carpets via a newly designed ecoPack. This has increased the awareness of the importance of waste management and focused the store managers to look at their waste management practices and needs and reassess the capacities they are using.

This exercise alone has identified a saving of £320,000 per annum.

Like many large retailers in the UK Allied Carets runs its own fleet of vehicles to distribute its products from it central warehouse. These vehicles deliver twice a week to each store and when the deliveries are complete the vehicles return to the distribution centre empty.

the green house has developed a system that allows these vehicles to be utilised to return not empty but with the valuable recycling material from the stores. Material that previously was thrown out and paid to be collectioed. With the green house reverse logistics system when Allied Carpets delivery vehicles deposit goods at stores, separated materials are then put onto the vehicles and this goes back with the drivers to the Distribution Centre.

Once this material is back at the Distribution Centre it is unloaded and baled into mill-sized bales weighing 500kg. The significance of this is that in order to unlock the value in recycling material it must be in a format that can be sent directly to a recycling mill for processing. If any 3rd party handling needs to take place then the value of the material drops each time it is handled.

We extract and return the following materials from the waste streams:

• Cardboard
• Plastics
• Brown Paper

the green house has strategic partnerships all around the world. Each week we trade Allied Carpets material along with every other clients and attain the best possible margins – based upon the demand required by each company in each country.

The last two years has seen a steady increase in the levels of demand for materials such as plastics, metals and card. This translates into an attractive margin for both the green house and its clients whereas previously it would have been a direct cost for the client.

In conjunction with the general waste management we have worked with the Finance Director and the Logistics Controller to strategically plan the implementation of back hauling across all sites over a period of 6 months.

Once card and plastic is being taken back to site there will be another saving of around £335k per annum, totalling £650k per annum, more than a third of the total waste bill.

Aside from the financial savings there have been numerous environmental benefits that Allied Carpets have gained from introducing this new system of waste management. This approach to waste management would greatly complement any environmental management system that was in place within an organisation and fully be a part of accredited schemes such as ISO 14001 and EMAS (Eco- management and audit scheme).

Allied Carpets has been put forward for an award at the 2008 retailer sustainability awards as a result of the wholesale changes that it has made and its renewed commitment