More efficient and profitable production by elimination of imported packaging material & improved heat conversion
Sturdy Products is a small plastics moulding company. In this project the supply of Sturdy Products primary raw material – polyethylene powder – was moved from being in disposable 20 kg bags to 1,000 kg reusable bulk containers.
Mechanical handling systems were put in place to deal with the larger containers and the mixing process was partially automated. This resulted in a major reduction in Sturdy Products waste stream, cost savings for the raw material and some labour savings. The elimination of the heavy lifting was welcomed by the plant operators and reinforced the success of the project.
The project has achieved the following:
- 45,000 disposable bags eliminated from the solid waste stream saving €2,000 waste costs.
- Switching to bulk supply saved 2.5% of material costs corresponding to €16,000.
- Annual labour savings of €3,430.
- Eliminated waste disposal costs of €2,000.
The company also installed a heat recovery system where waste heat from the rotational moulding manufacturing process is collected and used to preheat the office central heating water which has made some savings in gas usage.
For further details, download the Sturdy Products PDF.
