| Company: | Malthouse Industries |
|---|---|
| Business: | Supplier of flamecut steel components to the automotive sector |
| Employees: | TBC |
The Environmental Advice, Business Sustain team helped Malthouse Industries examine every waste stream to improve their environmental management. The company found that they could eliminate most of the waste produced by their process. In so doing they dramatically reduced the use of grinding coolant and water as well as improving the volume of usable scrap. This reduced the need for raw material, improved productivity and saved the company over £100,000 per annum.
Malthouse Industries is a West Midlands SME (Small or Medium-sized Enterprise) which supplies flamecut steel components to the automotive sector. The process of flame-cutting generates significant quantities of steel dust, often with pieces of steel embedded within it, and granules of grinding waste which is heavily contaminated with cutting fluid. A 10-Tonne skip would normally be filled every week with grinding residue and another 10-Tonne skip filled every day with flame cutting residue. This led to run-off of cutting fluid into the ground, dust released into the atmosphere when removal of the dross is completed, and annual waste disposal costs of over £100,000. The company now drains off the cutting fluid and reuses it, sells the small scrap steel pieces back to the rolling mill and is currently attempting to find a commercial use for the grinding dust. As a result of carefully examining their environmental aspects as part of the work towards an ISO 14001 Environmental Management System, the company has achieved dramatic waste reduction by re-using waste. This is an excellent indication of how an environmental management system can demonstrably contribute to sustainability.
Cost savings achieved were over £100,000 per annum and resource efficiency is vastly enhanced, resulting in cutting fluid being purchased every 2 to 3 months instead of every 2 to 3 weeks. In addition:
