The waste sector produces masses of carbon and Flame UK  is taking steps to reduce this and help the efforts to save the planet. The West Bridgford based waste management broker has become carbon neutral and is one of the first in the waste sector to offer a carbon neutral waste collection service to its business customers.

The first step was to become carbon neutral as a business, to do this, it was important to know how much carbon the business is producing. Nottingham Trent University visited the business’s head office in Nottingham to calculate how much carbon the business produces. This is split into three different scopes. Once Flame UK had done this, the next step was purchasing enough carbon credits to offset the amount of carbon produced. Flame UK have also planted 365 trees in areas affected by deforestation.

Flame UK are also offering customers the option to get involved too. For a little extra each month, Flame UK will calculate the amount of carbon produced from a customer’s waste collection and purchase enough carbon credits to offset the amount of carbon produced from collecting their waste. These carbon credits will go to projects all over the world that are helping to reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. These could go to developing hydropower plants in Sri Lanka or providing efficient and safe cooking equipment in Ghana.

Pam Knight, Managing Director at Flame UK, said, “We’re incredibly excited about becoming carbon neutral as a business and the opportunity to be one of the first brokers to offer our customers a carbon neutral waste collection. We know that the waste industry is partly responsible for creating a huge amount of emissions. We feel a responsibility to do our part to support and guide our customers on how they can become carbon neutral with their wate and help save the environment.

“In the future, we would love to take our efforts even further. We’re looking into the possibility of becoming net zero and have begun taking steps in this direction. We know that there’s a climate crisis and that this is a key concern for a lot of our clients”.

The waste sector is the fourth largest for emissions and was responsible for 3% of the total greenhouse gas emissions in 2017. This is mainly from the amount of travelling involved in waste management. The large HGV trucks that carry waste are the second largest contributors to UK transport emissions and account for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions.