WHEN Louis Byrne bought the Spar convenience store in Oakpark, Tralee, four years ago, he inherited a very traditional waste management system. “It was a second-generation shop and the previous owners were doing what they had been doing for the past 20 years — filling a skip around the back and sending it to landfill,” he said.

Byrne had two good reasons to change. “I wanted to extend the shop and needed the physical space used by the skip,” he said. “I also felt it was getting too costly to landfill the waste.” He bought a baler and compactor, at a cost of €12,700, so that cardboard and plastic could be recycled. “The compactor paid for itself within nine months,” said Byrne. “We also took all the newspapers and magazines out of the waste system by sending them for de-inking and recycling.”

He then contacted suppliers and requested that deliveries be made in reusable crates. This reduced the amount of packaging waste handled in the shop by more than 11 tons. All these moves helped the store to reduce its backdoor waste from one industrial skip a fortnight to two 600-litre wheelie bins a week. Consequently, its waste bill has fallen by about 40%, from €105 a week to €65, or about €2,000 a year.

“And I haven’t finished yet,” said Byrne. “Currently, I am piloting a composting scheme for our deli waste.”

The environmental benefits of sorting out his waste were only ever of secondary concern. “I wasn’t trying to save the planet when I got into recycling,” said Byrne. “I wanted to save the business money.”

In the 11 years since Imelda Shanahan set up TMS Environment, an environmental consultancy, there has been a sea change in the attitudes of small firms. “In the past, people did what they could get away with,” said Shanahan. This included putting batteries in bins or pouring solvents down drains. “Legislation forced people to do things differently,” she said. “The next stage of the cycle was the realisation that there’s money in this. Companies realised that, for example, by printing on both sides of a sheet of paper they weren’t just halving their paper costs, but also saving on postage when sending out big reports.”

The past year has seen attitudes towards environmental measures evolve still further. “We are now starting to see people wanting to save and coming up with ideas themselves,” said Shanahan. Apart from measurable savings in waste reduction, there is value added in the form of kudos in the marketplace.

“Very many firms have moved to introduce environmental standards such as ISO 14001 that they use as a marketing tool to say ‘I’m clean, I’m green’,” she said.

ISO 14001 is a series of environmental management standards developed and published by the International Organisation for Standardisation for firms. It specifies the requirements of an environmental management system for small to large organisations. Even the smallest operators are being encouraged to adopt a more environmentally aware approach to business.

“Large companies now often demand their suppliers to have, if not ISO 14001 accreditation, at least a stated policy on the environment that is signed by the managing director and bought into by management,” said Shanahan.

Macfarlane Plastics, a Wicklow manufacturer that employs 50 people and supplies lids to the baby food industry, got its ISO 14001 accreditation two years ago. Since then, it has saved €100,000 by being more environmentally aware.

Apart from segregating and recycling as much of its backdoor waste as possible, it has looked for ways to reduce the amount of waste emanating from its production processes. This resulted in the purchase of equipment that reduced the amount of plastic required to make its lids by about 40 tons and saved €45,000 a year.

“The new tool also allows more lids to come off each cycle too, reducing electricity and other costs,” said Adrian Carley, the quality and environment manager.