Sustainability overview
Newton Waterproofing aim to reduce the devastating impact of plastic pollution caused by the construction sector with innovative sustainability initiatives. The first of which is the unique Newton Membrane Recycling Service, developed in direct response to the large volumes of virgin HDPE plastic membrane wasted by the waterproofing industry each year.
The packaging industry is the largest producer of plastic waste. However, the construction industry is a close second. Each year, the construction industry produces 50,000 tones of plastic packaging waste. Consequently, we aim to continually expand our in-house sustainability initiatives through measures such as growing our range of recycled eco-products, and continuing our support of environmental charity Surfers Against Sewage.
Newton also holds Constructionline Gold status, as well as being members of The Supply Chain Sustainability School, the UK Green Building Council, and is certified to ISO 9001 and 14001 standards.
The Newton Recycling Service is the first closed-loop recycling scheme in the UK waterproofing industry, run in collaboration between Newton and our Newton Specialist Basement Contractors in order to actively collect and recycle off-cuts of HDPE waterproofing membrane and the plastic tubs and metal containers that hold our liquid waterproofing products from across the UK, for reuse in the construction industry.
To provide this service, Newton has dedicated drivers who will collect the HDPE & product containers from the site or offices of our NSBC network for recycling back at our head office in Tonbridge, Kent. The waste off-cuts and packaging are also collected at the same time as new construction membranes are being delivered, thus saving on dedicated pickups and the associated carbon emissions.
Overall, since 2017 Newton has prevented 21.87 tonnes of HDPE membrane from going to landfill, and we aim to continue this success in 2023.
With the 2021 expansion of the service to also include our plastic and metal packaging that is used to store and distribute our liquid-applied waterproofing products, we estimate to also prevent over 7,000 containers from going to landfill in 2021 and each year thereafter.
To translate this into some slightly more quantifiable figures, 21.87 tonnes of recycled HDPE equates to:
- Preventing 20.69 tonnes of CO2e emissions from entering the atmosphere*
- Saving 80,900 Kilowatt Hours (kWh) of energy
- Energy which is worth a total of £11,625.36
- Which is enough energy to make over 2.87 million mugs of tea!
*Turner, D., Williams, I. and Kemp, S. (2015) Greenhouse gas emission factors for recycling of source-segregated waste materials Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 105, (Part A), pp. 186-197.