Hospitality tabletop leader, Steelite International was awarded an Engineering Gold Green Apple Award by The Green Organisation at a ceremony held at the Houses of Parliament last week.
It picked up the award for its three-centrifuge system and the introduction of a water recycling system. Simply put, Steelite's machinery works by spinning waste material out of waste water at very high speed, resulting in clean water rather than cloudy water. Apart from significantly reducing water usage, it saves glaze and lowers energy usage on the site too.
Supported by a £250k investment by Steelite, the system saves the company 100 tonnes of glaze per year, as well as 20 cubic metres of water per day.
Patrick Griffin, Site Services Director who collected the award with Project Engineer, Nick Gibbons, said, “We’re delighted to have won an Engineering Gold Green Apple Award for our latest system and approach to water recycling.
'The water is no longer going to waste, we’re lowering site energy usage, saving glaze, and we've even reduced the amount of chemicals in the process to reclaim glaze which has improved the waste water that does leave site.
“To our knowledge, this is an industry first. We hope it serves as inspiration for other companies and industries that can do something similar to reduce the global impact that manufacturing has on finite resources.”
The award was collected by Griffin, Nick Gibbons (Project Engineer).
Steelite has long been a champion of sustainable initiatives. In 2008, it joined the Green Organisation with a vision to communicate and offer advice on what companies can do to improve their environmental impact.
In 2010, Steelite won its first Gold Green Apple award in the Recycling sector for its Lamella filtration system reducing body material waste by reclaiming it from the sites waste water prior to the water going to drain.
In 2013, Steelite won a Silver Green Apple award for achieving these goals and ensuring 0% to landfill.