Crown Paints has ramped up its waste reduction capability with a major investment in new plant. The UK paint manufacturer is supporting the activities of its award-winning social enterprise scheme NIMTECH on site at its Lancashire plant with the introduction of new granulating machinery.

The plant converts old paint containers into a new type of material, which can then be reprocessed to make garden benches, planters and other street furniture. NIMTECH, a social enterprise providing employment opportunities for the hard to reach and long-term unemployed, has played a key role in Crown’s sustainability programme - providing the business with waste recovery and recycling services across the UK.

Crown Paints originally introduced the NIMTECH partnership to its Darwen headquarters in 2012 as part of its award-winning Earthbalance® sustainability programme, launched in 2008. Earthbalance® is focused on changing the way Crown Paints does business in terms of social responsibility, the environment and the economy.

Mark Lloyd, Sustainability Manager at Crown Paints, said: “The granulator adds a new dimension to our capabilities with NIMTECH - enabling the team to prepare on site all used plastic containers, ready for reprocessing. "Of major environmental benefit is the fact that the plastic containers no longer need to be transported off site in bulk to be granulated, therefore removing the large-scale transport and mileage implications for thousands of containers.”