Company Background
Greene King is the UK’s leading pub retailer and brewer, with 2,750 pubs, restaurants and hotels situated across the country. It was founded in Bury St Edmunds in 1799 and currently employs around 40,000 people across its main trading businesses; Pub Company, Pub Partners and Brewing & Brands.
The company is committed to reducing its environmental impact and operating sustainably. In 2020, it achieved the Carbon Trust’s Zero Waste to Landfill Standard and it has lots of initiatives across the business to reduce its impact on the environment.
Issues
Millions of tubs of chocolates, sweets and biscuits are sold in the UK each year; with the Christmas period accounting for the largest slice of all sales.
These tubs are made from polypropylene, which many local authorities find hard to recycle and, if this is the case, they are either landfilled or incinerated
Solution
In January 2021, Greene King launched a national campaign, together with co-cre8 and DCW Polymers to turn these tubs into much-needed cash for its national charity partner, Macmillan Cancer Support.
co-cre8 is using its specialist knowledge to create a solution for these hard-to-recycle materials and will also be responsible for attracting large businesses to support the campaign.
Consumers and businesses are being encouraged to drop off their used plastic confectionery and biscuit tubs at any of Greene King’s managed pubs, restaurants and hotels across the UK. The tubs will be taken to DCW Polymers, who will employ its high-tech plastic reprocessing plant to shred and granulate the tubs ready for sale to manufacturers, that will displace virgin plastic.
First Year Results
The first year’s campaign ran during the whole of January 2021 and was supported by PR and social media. However, due to national lockdowns, all hospitality was closed, preventing the easy return of tubs.
Nevertheless, a fantastic effort from communities up and down the country meant that 5,227 tubs in total were collected.
This translated into 422kg in weight and, by reselling the recycled plastics, £422 was raised for Macmillan Cancer Support.
The campaign will return in 2022, this time with as many as 1,700 Greene King pubs participating, which should raise a far larger sum.
Vance Fairman-Smith, Greene King’s supply chain director, said:
“Earlier this year, we announced we were the first pub company to achieve the Carbon Trust’s Zero Waste to Landfill Standard, and we’re continually looking at how we can tackle waste and help the environment through recycling. We’re really excited to be able to offer this recycling facility to our customers but also to support Macmillan, which needs help more than ever following the huge gap in donations following the Covid 19 crisis.”
Visit the official Tub2Pub website here
Keshari joined the co-cre8 team in 2022 and is responsible for the daily management of the business finances including financial reporting, purchase ledger, sales ledger and building relationships with customers and suppliers.
Wayne joined the co-cre8 team in 2022 and brings more than two decade’s worth of operational and commercial experience in the food service packaging and waste management sectors. With co-cre8’s portfolio of three business divisions, Wayne spreads his unrivalled skillset across multiple activities including for our Honest brand, internal Waste and Recycling Stations and System Design partnership projects. Wayne plays a key role in ensuring co-cre8’s operations are commercially viable, building and maintaining great relationships with suppliers, ensuring the smooth success of projects and keeping a smile on everyone’s face!
We welcomed Hannah to the team in January 2022 to grow and develop our Built Environment business division. Hannah brings a wealth of skills to the team including her fantastic communication and eye for detail.
Katie joined the team in December 2021, and plays a key role in supporting the Sales and Marketing Manager with all sales and marketing activity across the co-cre8 and Honest brands. Katie’s main responsibilities include pro-actively developing and reactively managing business-to-business sales opportunities, processing orders, general customer service and supporting with the creation and delivery of marketing campaigns.
Prior to co-founding co-cre8 in 2019, Peter spent 10 years as a UK Director of Closed Loop Environmental Solutions. With a passion for recycling and, as one of the UK’s leading exponents of promoting more circular solutions, Peter created and delivered many pioneering industry projects, most notably the Simply Cups scheme.
James has over 20 years’ experience in the waste and recycling industry. Starting with just one second hand truck, he founded and developed Simply Waste Solutions into a thriving, profitable business with a £35m turnover. In 2020, James decided that he was ready for new challenges and took Simply Waste to a successful exit, selling to Biffa plc for £40m.
Natalie joins the co-cre8 team with extensive knowledge and experience in waste, recycling, and circular business models, with her speciality in Finance. For the last 17 years, Natalie has worked, and was a shareholder, in a start-up, high growth to exit waste and recycling business, with 15 years spent at board level.
Georgia joined the team at co-cre8 in 2020 and is responsible for developing the business through creative thinking and effective communication via sales and marketing channels.
Rachel originally joined the co-cre8 team in 2019 as Customer Service Specialist for Simply Cups. Her role has since evolved, following the launch of the Built Environment range, where she now heads up all logistics including supplier liaising, order processing and general operations of the business.