Hydro Aluminium has a strong sustainability ethos and as part of a new project within their Environmental, Social and Governance plans, employees and suppliers joined the Marine Conservation Society to collect and record 37kg of rubbish from two UK beaches.
Hydro UK Sustainability Manager, Richard Eaton identified a way that the company could help to support the local area and ocean research by teaming up with the Marine Conservation Society. Their team works towards helping to create a cleaner and healthier ocean and they also have projects to clean inland areas.
The set up of the day was great, the team were given a 100m stretch of beach to clean and everything found was categorised and recorded. Lizzie Price, Beachwatch Programme Manager says the “team picked up and recorded an incredible 1009 litter items” and this information will then be collated into an annual report. There was then an opportunity to learn more about how long rubbish takes to degrade in the natural environment and team building exercises, followed by a general litter clean.
Florian Schnetzer, Sustainability Manager Extrusion Europe was part of the team at the beach clean and says “Norsk Hydro is committed to eliminate landfilling of recoverable waste by 2040. In Hydro Extrusion Europe we aim to achieve zero waste to landfill for our operations by 2030 or earlier. The Hydro Aluminium UK beach clean initiative has an excellent fit in our sustainability approach and supports our ambition to equip people with essential skills and training. I personally learned a lot during this day. It is based on a scientific approach, creates awareness about the issue of waste pollution of marine coastal environments and was fun to attend”.
Hydro Aluminium UK has four sites across the UK consisting of manufacturing plants, fabrication and components, extrusion, casthouses, surface treatment and thermal break. Given the geographical locations of our sites, we chose two beaches to survey; Bridlington (Yorkshire) and Sand Bay South Beach (Somerset). On arrival most people considered that the beaches looked quite clean already, but it soon became apparent that there was actually a significant amount of rubbish which could end up in the oceans, harming our wildlife.
Everyone was very positive about the event, learned a lot and was happy to be part of the mission to improve our UK coastline.
Phil Rees, Group Regional Director from Macfarlane Packaging who took part in the beach clean said: “It was a great day for the Macfarlane volunteer litter clean up team at the beach in Sand Bay South as we supported our customer, Hydro and the Marine Conservation Society to make a positive impact in the area.
“I and four other colleagues, including our Head of Sustainability, David Patton, took part in the beach clean as part of Macfarlane’s volunteer day initiative which allows colleagues to spend a paid day each year doing something to benefit the local community. Beaches are an important asset for all of us and it was great to be able to help in the litter clearance effort.
“As a packaging business we are sharply focused on continually reducing our own environmental impact and working with customers to help them reduce waste and emissions.”
If you would like to find out more about supporting the beach cleans, then contact the Marine Conservation Society and to discover other ways that Hydro Aluminium are working towards net-zero by 2050 then reach out. Let’s all work together to protect our planet.