Because the things I make are bespoke and largely individually made I have many opportunities to minimize waste. In order to do this I carefully cut components from stock in order to minimize waste and offcuts. Some offcuts are of course inevitable but these are stored with care, with different materials segregated, in order that they can be used for other projects in the future.

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When making larger bending irons I minimize waste by cutting portions of the billet rather than simply machining the shape out  of the whole billet. These pieces can then be used to make some of the smaller bending irons or other things. This process is rather painstaking and time consuming but worthwhile in order to minimize waste.

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I use a lot of aluminium in my products, this is partly because it is an ideal material for the task but it is also very efficient to recycle.

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• Recycling aluminium uses 95% less energy than producing aluminium from raw materials.

• It also saves 97% of greenhouse gas emissions produced in the primary production process.

• Recycling 1 tonne of aluminium saves 9 tonnes of CO2 emissions and 4 tonnes of bauxite – the raw material from which aluminium is made. 1 tonne of CO2 is equivalent to driving over 3,500 miles.

• The metal is a permanently available resource. It is 100 per cent recyclable, for ever, so carbon savings increase every time it passes through the recycling loop.

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I do also use, Brass, Nickle silver, copper, stainless steel and carbon steel in my products. I take some care to clean up machines and working areas between processes in order to keep cuttings and scrap from processes separate, clean and free from contamination. This makes it better for recycling and reduces the need for further processes in recycling to purify the materials.

All the clean metal scrap is taken to a local recycler just 2.4 miles from my workshop which minimizes the amount of energy used to transport it.  

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Packaging

I always try to package your order well but I do always try and reuse packaging and padding wherever possible to minimise waste and landfill.

There is more information about my production methods, waste minimizing and recycling in FAQs.

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