Inflatex Ltd's Environment Policy can be read below or downloaded.
Environment Policy
Inflatex Ltd, acknowledges it’s responsibility to the environment and recognises the importance, no matter how big or small, the impact of our activities on the environment and the need to consider ways in which to conserve energy and minimise waste.
This policy is available for all to view on our websites and is also communicated to all persons working for or on behalf of the organisation.
The subsections of this environmental policy are:
- Water and Electricity Consumption
- Products
- Packaging
- Paper Usage
- Waste and Recycling
- Vehicle Emissions
- Carbon Offsetting
Water and Electricity Consumption
Whilst the energy provider, tariff type and electricity energy source are all unfortunately not controllable by Inflatex Ltd, where possible we aim to reduce water and electricity consumption.
- Natural light unfortunately is not sufficient for some areas of the office and workshop, but where possible lights are not turned on or left on unnecessarily.
- Upon occupying the premises in Plympton, all lighting in the storage, workshop and office areas were promptly changed to LED lights in January 2021.
- Not leaving equipment on unnecessarily.
- Not wasting drinking water.
- Utilising buckets of water for vehicle washing rather than just using constantly running water.
- Monitoring heating temperatures and not leaving heaters on excessively or overnight.
- The energy consumption and ratings of new electrical items are considered prior to purchases.
Products
The very nature of Inflatex Ltd’s repair kits and other products are all about increasing the lifespan of a product to help reduce consumer waste. We know many of our products such as glues and solvents are not very environmentally friendly, but the following initiatives are in place in regard to the products available from Inflatex Ltd:
- Most glues, solvents, cleaning products and fabric patches are available in a variety of sizes to allow consumers to purchase the required products in a quantity/size that is applicable to what they require and not just a single larger size with ‘big sales’ as the focus.
- Customers are not forced to purchase multi-packs: items offered as a multipack, such as Leafield Marine valve repair kits and cleaning cloths are available as singles too.
Packaging
The following positive packaging initiatives are followed to help reduce our environmental impact, whilst also helping to reduce costs:
- Sufficient packaging: items are packaged sufficiently to hopefully ensure they are not damaged before delivery and therefore reducing the need for sending orders multiple times. We are proud to experience very few damages.
- Reusing packaging: as well as reusing packaging we receive, we are working in collaboration with neighbouring and local businesses, who donate their used and unwanted, clean and reusable packaging to us. This initiative also helps these businesses reduce their waste. This applies to items including cardboard boxes, bubble wrap, zip-lock bags and filling materials such as scrunched paper and loose fill packaging chips. We also look to reuse other materials for packaging such as the backing paper of labels to prevent it being just a waste product which is immediately disposed of.
- Some products, that would not be damaged or hindered physically or visibly, are labelled directly onto the item. This applies for items such as valve spanners.
- Where plastic is used for stock labelling purposes or packaging, Inflatex Ltd aims to reuse bags and use the smallest bags possible. The ziplock bags used for many stock items can also be reused by our customers.
- Where plastic is used as additional packaging on liquids, this is in case of the uncommon event of spillage, potentially preventing other items being damaged and repairs to still be undertaken.
- Our main supplier of brand new packaging is a “Carbon Neutral Britain” certified company.
Paper Usage
At Inflatex Ltd, we aim to reduce the amount of paper used and have already dramatically reduced the amount of paper consumed to operate by implementing the following initiatives:
- Paperless book keeping/accounts.
- When instructions are provided with a product, they are printed double sided, not single sided.
- Orders are picked from an invoice, which is then supplied to our customers, which reduces the need for a separate packing slip.
Waste and Recycling
Multiple practices are implemented to help the environment and aim to produce as small a quantity of non-reusable or non-recyclable waste as possible.
- Reusing packaging – see above section.
- Glass is recycled.
- Metal is recycled and collected by a local merchant when they are passing rather than making a separate journey for this purpose.
- Reuse or recycle card and paper.
- All offcuts of fabric, colourful packaging materials and some unusable items are donated to a local charity for reuse. The charity collects from us when collecting from others in the area, to avoid a single journey for this waste reducing initiative.
- Plastic bags are reused as bin liners, reducing the need for additional single use plastic.
- Plastic drums are repurposed.
- Pallets are returned to our suppliers or repurposed.
Vehicle Emissions
When vehicles are purchased by Inflatex Ltd, their environmental impact, in particularly, fuel consumption and repairability is very much taken into consideration. Vehicle usage is also considered and where possible journeys are limited or combined.
Offsetting Carbon
Rather than purchasing carbon to offset our carbon footprint, Inflatex Ltd is investigating what local projects there are, which have a positive affect on the local environment, they can assist with.
We are in the early stages of this, but in late October 2023 we donated a number of pallets to Cornwood’s community tree nursery. The pallets are going to be repurposed into items including potting tables.
Reviews
This Environmental Policy is to be reviewed and updated at regular intervals.
Version 1: 03/11/2023