Elite Wins Inaugural Sustainability Initiative Award At The Plastics Industry Awards

Jane Salmon and Josh Salmon collect the Sustainability Initiative of the Year Award on behalf of Elite Plastics

Elite Plastics has won the inaugural ‘Sustainability Initiative of the Year’ award at the recent Plastics Industry Awards, which took place in London on November 17.

Elites new solar panel installation

Now in its 22nd year, the Plastics Industry Awards is dedicated to rewarding innovation and exceptional performance and this year, it introduced the ‘Sustainability Initiative’ award to recognise companies that are excelling in making the plastic industry more environmentally friendly.

ELITES new state-of-the-art co-extrusion line

Elite Plastics is one of the UK’s leading, family-owned extrusion companies, specialising in extrusion, printing, conversion and recycling of polythene films, bags and cover packaging products.

Josh Salmon, Director at Elite Plastics, was on hand to collect the award alongside his mother Jane Salmon. He said: “We are ecstatic to have won this award. It’s a great feeling, to have our efforts and investments recognised by the industry. Sustainability is a key part of our approach at Elite and we intend to work alongside our customers to ensure that we can help them to meet their own sustainability goals, too. Winning this award demonstrates how much we have achieved so far at Elite and I’m really proud of everyone’s efforts.”

Elite has placed a clear focus on achieving its sustainability targets, which include a large Solar PV installation on the roof of the company’s two extrusion halls and a multi-million-pound investment in brand new state of the art production lines optimised for energy efficient production.

The solar installation was commissioned in March 2023 and covers the company’s two large extrusion halls. The installation is estimated to generate 220,000kWh of electricity each year, reducing total emissions by 43.2 tonnes of CO2 each year. This is equivalent to the emissions produced by a car travelling 121,551 miles. Since installation, the solar panels have powered nearly 10% of the site’s production operations and during daytime hours the site can be operating from 30%+ solar power.

The PIA judges were "hugely impressed by the current initiatives and future predictions" and noted: "Family-owned Elite Plastics has placed sustainability at the core of every aspect of its business. Elite has established itself as a sustainable and technological leader through continuous investment and innovation"

Elite has also invested heavily in brand new state of the art production lines optimised for energy efficient production, significantly reducing the energy consumed per kg of polythene extruded. They have also installed lines configured to be optimised for recycled material incorporation into technical products, with the aim to create a circular economy for recycling post-consumer waste back into the blends.

Other sustainability initiatives at Elite include, but are not limited to:

·         The formal announcement of the company’s Net Zero Carbon Strategy which is maintained, reported, monitored, tracked and run through an online portal;

·         Investment in a new recycling line, doubling the site’s current recycling capacity, which will significantly increase the company’s closed-loop, circular economy efforts;

·         Investing in site-wide electric forklift trucks, eliminating gas and diesel forklifts in the company’s operations;

·         Site-wide LED lighting project;

·         Installation of a comprehensive energy management and data monitoring system for all extrusion lines to optimise and reduce energy consumption. This allows Elite to monitor the energy consumption per kilogram for every customer product that is extruded, allowing customers to use the data to prove that their products carry a reduced carbon footprint per tonne.

See link below to the PIA website:

https://www.plasticsawards.com/plasticsindustryawards2023/en/page/winners-2023

Elite Nominated For Two Awards At The Prestigious Plastic Industry Awards 2023

Elite Plastics has been nominated at the prestigious Plastic Industry Awards 2023 for not just one but two awards! 

Supplier Partnership - Prime Machinery Nomination

Elite submitted entries into two categories and have been successful in receiving nominations for both of them meaning we are finalists!

The first award category is “Supplier Partnership - Prime Machinery” a joint entry between Elite and UK Extrusion and the award nomination is for the installation of our state-of-th-art Bandera Co-Extrusion Line.

Sustainability Initiative Of The year nomination

The second award category is “Sustainability Initiative of the Year” a solo entry, the award nomination is for the combined sustainability projects we have implemented on-site from big to small including a large solar panel installation on the roof of Elite’s production halls, energy efficient production lines, new recycling line, closing the loop as we now collect scrap from customers for recycling, energy monitoring, waterless urinals and more.

Just being nominated is a great achievement and something to be proud of. If Elite manages to win it’ll just be a bonus as we are up against some heavyweights. 

See link below to the PIA website:

https://www.plasticsawards.com/plasticsindustryawards2023/en/page/finalists-2023

6 Figure Investment In Erema Recycling Line

Investment in a replacement Erema recycling line to double the size of the company’s inhouse recycling operations, which recycles post-consumer waste to increase capacity for integration into the polythene products extruded on the same site on the new state-of-the- art lines (the company is accredited with the Environmental Agency as a recycler of postconsumer waste). This puts the company in a unique and strong position of incorporating both recycling and extrusion of post-consumer polythene back into products all on one site, eliminating the carbon footprint which would otherwise come from transporting from recyclers to the blown film extruders.

Elite Sign PPE Deal With UK Government

NHS and social care staff across the country are set to receive tens of millions of items of PPE every month thanks to a new deal between the Government and Elite Plastics Ltd

Elite Plastics Ltd has started the production of 20 million aprons every month for frontline staff treating coronavirus patients.

As part of the Government’s “Make” initiative to use the production power of the UK’s world-leading manufacturing sector, Elite Plastics has ramped up its 24-hour production process, opening new lines and hiring over 20 additional staff, with plans to recruit more people in the coming weeks, to rapidly produce much-needed PPE for healthcare workers.

Lord Paul Deighton, adviser to the Health Secretary on PPE, said:

“The response from our manufacturing industry has been phenomenal and I can’t thank them enough for their continued efforts. Every health and care worker must have access to appropriate PPE and through this national effort we will ensure they do.

“We have already struck deals with around 30 UK companies to manufacture PPE and over 100 suppliers to deliver items at scale and pace. We will continue to identify further opportunities to get more PPE to the frontline rapidly.”

Josh Salmon, Commercial Director of Elite Plastics Ltd, said:

“The contract with the Department of Health and Social Care has empowered us to scale our production even more, allowing us to take on over 20 new staff and not furlough anyone. 

“We are proud to be a British manufacturer rising to the challenge to produce PPE for our NHS.”

Aprons are being manufactured 24/7 at Elite’s production site in Hereford, UK to significantly boost domestic production of PPE and create jobs in the local community.

Elite Joins The British Plastics Federation

This week Elite Plastics proudly and officially became a member of the British Plastics Federation (BPF). the British Plastics Federation is the world’s longest running plastics trade association, established in 1933 to represent the UK industry. The main purpose of the BPF is to promote a successful UK plastics sector, which it does by providing membership services to the different BPF groups, including projects, events, updates, research and other activities. Elite Plastics saw the need to join the BPF due to these benefits and also as Elite continues on it’s trajectory of growth to be a part of a federation that supports and helps facilitate that growth.

COVID-19 Update - Production Continues

Elite Plastics confirms that our production operations are continuing and intends to continue unless the UK Government legislates otherwise.

Our production operations are currently prioritising our clients in the front-line industries of this pandemic such as Healthcare, Pharmaceutical and Food ensuring that quick production and delivery times are offered whenever required to ensure that we do our bit in helping their operations continue as uninterrupted as possible. We are currently operating our usual service to all other clients.

Elite Plastics has now enforced strict hygiene procedures on-site closely following and going beyond the guidelines set out by the UK Government and temperature checks on every staff member is mandatory. All Goods In and Goods Out logistics are all non-contact. Any staff member that exhibits symptoms of COVID-19 are being told to self-isolate. This is just a few of many measures that are now in place to ensure the health of everyone is protected as much as possible whilst still enabling Elite Plastics to provide desperately needed polythene products to key front-line industries.

Tender Opportunity January 2020

Background – Elite Plastics is a company specialising in the extrusion, conversion and printing of plastic materials. The company was established in 1990 and is located on the Rotherwas Industrial Estate in Hereford.  A recent business review has identified the need to replace DC motors with AC motors with suitable inverter controls on 3 machines in our extrusion lines.

Opportunity – The company currently operate DC motors on 3 extrusion lines. We are looking to replace the motors with AC motors with appropriately sized inverter drives. Proposals to include prices for supply, installation and commissioning with each extrusion line separately costed.

Site visits if required can be arranged with the project manager detailed below.

Capability – Suppliers are invited to provide examples of similar installations undertaken in the past three years to demonstrate capability to undertake this project.

Selection Criteria – the contract will be awarded to the most cost-effective tender that meets the requirements of the tender and can be delivered within the planned timescales.

Payment Terms – Payment will be made in stages and agreed as part of the contract discussions. Anticipated payment terms to be included in the prospective suppliers quotation.

Cost – To be stipulated in the prospective suppliers quotation

Timescales

· Completed tenders to be received by the companies Project Manager via email no later than 12:00 noon on the 24th January 2020.

· Project timing plan to be included in prospective suppliers tender. Timing plan to be agreed as part of contract negotiations.

Project Manager: Paul Bayliss

Email: [email protected]