Shred Station receives Environmental Project of the Year award!

The British Security Awards 2021, organised by the BSIA, took place online on 30th June 2021. These awards celebrate security excellence and are open to all security personnel and businesses in the UK.

We are delighted to announce that, after reaching the finals for both awards we were nominated for, we won the inaugural Environmental Project of the Year award!

The Environmental Project of the Year

We were nominated for the Environmental Project of the Year award for our involvement in the Frontline Face Shields Project!

The Frontline Face Shields Project was started in 2020 by Colin Breckons, a man local to our Norwich depot. Colin started the project with the aim of 3D printing face shields for frontline workers during 2020’s national PPE shortage. The project quickly gathered pace and media attention, accruing the help of many local volunteers.

However, as the output increased, volunteers grew concerned that the 3D printing process was generating large volumes of plastic waste. If this waste was properly handled, it could provide more raw material to continue the project’s production run rather than go to landfill. It is also worth noting that there was a national shortage of 3D printer filament at the time, with the price per kilo of extruded plastic skyrocketing over 300% within two weeks.

We were able to take this production waste and use our shredders to granulate the plastic into tiny 2-3mm fragments. These fragments were then used to make more 3D printer wire.

This diverted a large amount of plastic waste from landfill, reduced project costs, and meant more masks could be produced. Thanks to our green initiatives and CarbonNeutral® company certification, the carbon footprint of our involvement was also offset to net-zero.

A special thanks and congratulations to our very own Martin Emms who facilitated our involvement with the project, and, of course, to Colin Breckons and all of the Frontline Face Shields Project’s volunteers. With their efforts and determination, the project was able to deliver 50,000 face shields to frontline workers across the UK.

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