In just under two years, the innovative Membrane Recycling Service from Newton has garnered a huge total of 11 award nominations and six wins!

The list of nominations and wins:
• The Property Care Association Best Practice Awards, Sustainability – Winner
• Kent Excellence in Business Awards, Commitment to the Environment – Winner
• National Recycling Awards, Commercial Waste Reduction Initiative Award – Finalist
• Plastic Industry Awards, Best Environment or Energy Efficiency Programme of the Year – Finalist
• London Construction Awards, Product Innovation of the Year – Finalist
• Kent Environment Strategy, Kent Environment Champions Award – Winner
• The National Building Awards, Innovation of the Year – Winner
• Construction News Awards, Best Innovation – Finalist
• British and Irish Trading Alliance, Charles Darwin Award – Winner
• Association of Specialist Underpinning Contractors, Special Achievement Award – Winner
• London Construction Awards, Sustainable Construction Award – To Be Confirmed!

As the first and only closed-loop recycling service of its kind in the waterproofing sector, Newton run the service in collaboration with Newton Specialist Basement Contractors (NSBCs) to actively collect and recycle off-cuts of HDPE waterproofing membrane.

A team of dedicated Newtonites are tasked with keeping the service running smoothly, including Warehouse Operative, Nathan Conroy and Recycling Officer, Peter Watson. Both Nathan and Peter work hard to process all the waste membrane, ensuring it is chipped into small granules and packaged up ready to be sent off to be made into new construction products.

Since the scheme launched in March 2017, Newton have successfully prevented 12.87 tonnes of plastic from going to landfill and 14.788 tonnes of CO2 emissions from entering the atmosphere. This saves enough energy to make over 2 million mugs of tea!

“Construction waste is a big contributor to sustainability problems, particularly as the ‘make, use and dispose’ approach has often been favoured in the past. Having an effective waste management policy that reduces, reuses and recycles can help combat the industry’s waste and sustainability problems. And by collecting the waste HDPE on delivery back-loads, the service avoids creating additional carbon emissions too.” – Warren Muschialli, Managing Director, Newton Waterproofing