PLANT PLANET
CIRCULAR ECONOMY ROUND-UP
INDUSTRY CORNER
APRIL 2024 – WITHAM GROUP LTD For last April’s issue, we spoke with the innovative Witham Group, providing an essential component in machinery: oil. Sustainability and green practices were very much at the forefront of the conversation. “We started with the quick wins. We looked at our recycling process, paper and plastic, the basics. The we started using grey water for washing the vehicles and the factory itself. Out of all the stuff, that was pretty easy. Then we
prototype to use ultrasound to mix the lubricant. You place ten different liquids in a tube and... the ultrasound basically pulls the products in and mixes them at a molecular level. It’s a big eureka moment, because all of a sudden, we didn’t need to heat the product, we didn’t need to use a mechanical paddle to mix it and we could use it plugged into a plug or a wall. So, before, it took about 1962kw of power to blend 10000 litres of oil. Now, it takes 8kw! “And no heat needed at all. Our gas usage has reduced by 93%...This also means our product packs can be filled immediately without the need for cooling and we can also blend much smaller bespoke batches. We are now blending completely carbon neutral.” They also have extensive Environmental and Sustainable Objectives 2025, listed on their website. these cover everything from carbon footprint measuring, supply chain management, waste management, recycling and water usage.
looked at our raw material suppliers’ environmental credentials and the way that they were manufacturing the product that we would buy. We like to ask questions, find more sustainable solutions. “We looked at the oil barrels themselves. They’re metal barrels that are dropped off and then when they’re finished, they’re disposed of. We thought, what if we did away with that completely. Now, depending on geographical area of course, we supply free oil tanks that can be filled in bulk. Then they are directly refilled.” And then there was their blending operations and one of the most impressive and clever changes we’d come across: “The process is called Blendtek Solutions. Instead of using a mechanical paddle and heat, we developed a method and
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APRIL // MaY 2025
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