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In this ever-changing business landscape – with new developments coming out each week, if not day – staying ahead of the curve is more crucial than ever.

Evolving legislation, increasingly stringent supply chains, tougher environmental targets, green pressures, mounting costs, and the search for more efficient materials handling strategies are driving a growing number of firms to consider investing in shredding technology.

However, navigating the complexities of such machinery and making the perfect investment can be an overwhelming prospect.

That’s why we’re thrilled to announce the release of our comprehensive new ‘Buyer’s guide to shredding technology’. This FREE resource – packed with decades of experience distilled into practical advice – equips readers with the knowledge and insights to make informed, best-value decisions as they embark on their shredder procurement journey.

As demand grows for future-focused investments that deliver returns well into the future, we’ve seen heightened interest in UNTHA’s comprehensive service and maintenance plans recently. In fact, we even marked our 70th service plan milestone in June — testament to the increasing value our customers place on reliable, long-term support for their shredding needs.

Marking five years with the business, Julie Cassidy, parts and maintenance sales executive, has been instrumental in securing this landmark achievement.

“Our clients understand the importance of keeping their plant in peak condition to maximise performance, productivity, and profitability,” says Julie. “With scheduled inspections, cutter refurbishments, and expert training, our service plans are an effective way to keep shredders running at their best, while keeping costs in firm focus. I’m proud to see my five year anniversary coincide with such a special milestone for the business.”

While our shredders come with a 12-month warranty as standard, this ‘peace of mind in a package’ extends far beyond initial purchase. With the ability to ensure continuous uptime, maximise efficiency, and extend the lifespan of a customer’s plant, our service plans have proven particularly popular among organisations seeking assurance for the longevity of their machines.

More than an ‘off the shelf’ offering, every package is completely bespoke. However, a typical service plan might include:

• Scheduled inspections and preventative servicing

• Rebuilds and refurbishments, where necessary

• Spare and wear parts, with 95% shipped same day

• Prioritised breakdown assistance if the unexpected happens

• An engineering helpline with remote diagnostics available

• Shredder trials and feasibility studies, as your requirements evolve

• Comprehensive operator training including refresher sessions for new starter

• Real-time insights via UNTHA Genius, to monitor, measure, and boost shredder performance 

Wondering about the cost? Pricing for our service and maintenance packages varies depending on factors like your machine type, input materials, typical operating hours, and internal engineering capabilities. However, many of our customers spread the cost with UNTHA Finance. That way, there’s one fixed monthly fee, with no unexpected surprises. 

Gary Moore, sales director at UNTHA UK, explores the complex interplay between consumerism, waste management, and environmental responsibility, and examines how innovative technologies and strategies can revolutionise the industry’s approach to textile waste. In case you missed the original article on Circular, you can catch up below…

Media headlines are increasingly dominated by the shocking volume of seemingly usable products meeting their demise in landfills.

To avoid discounts and flash sales on surplus or damaged stock, for example, EU brands have been scolded for discarding 5.8 million tonnes of textiles every year — equivalent to approximately 11kg (24 pounds) per person.

On the face of it, it’s an alarming statistic. However, there’s a lot more that lies beneath the surface with this topic — not least when we consider the stringent compliance obligations plaguing manufacturers and retailers, as well as the perceived ease of following less sustainable, and more costly, disposal routes.

The carbon footprint of fast fashion

The fate of discarded textiles remains one of the biggest challenges facing organisations today. With many destined for landfill or incineration, this doesn’t just waste money and valuable resources but poses grave environmental risks.

Taking over 200 years to decompose, such materials generate harmful greenhouse methane gas, as well as leach toxic chemicals and dyes into the groundwater and our soil. 

According to the United Nations, the fast fashion industry is responsible for 8-10% of global emissions — more than the aviation and shipping industries combined.

Clothing and other textile waste account for much of the problem, with 57% of discarded, unsold, and used clothes ending up in landfills annually, where it degrades and releases potent methane gas.

On a 100-year timescale, methane is 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide and has 84 times the global warming potential on a 20-year timescale. Once landfills reach their capacity, the trash is incinerated, releasing more greenhouse gases and compromising human health.

The problem is being exacerbated by the growth of e-commerce, where “deadstock” can tie up capital, consume precious storage space, and hinder growth in a market that thrives on quick turnovers.

Online shopping has also marked a significant shift in consumerism towards purchasing clothing more frequently.

Retail giants under scrutiny

Elsewhere, in one of the more shocking cases, a 2021 ITV News investigation exposed retail giant Amazon’s practice of destroying millions of unsold items yearly.

One anonymous employee revealed targets to destroy 130,000 products each week — including smart TVs, laptops, drones, hairdryers, headphones, books, and more.

Rather than redistributing these products to those in need or exploring avenues for reuse, they end up in recycling centres or landfills — which, as we know, is not the ultimate solution.

In line with the waste hierarchy, the prevention, reduction, and reuse of waste precede recycling as a priority.

Not only are many items still being discarded unnecessarily today, creating waste where there isn’t any, but even truly redundant products contain valuable resources that could be liberated for reuse elsewhere.

This isn’t a problem exclusive to the UK though. “Dumpster diving” activists — who salvage unused items from retailers’ bins — have also shamed the wastefulness of brands such as TJ Maxx and Bed, Bath & Beyond overseas, for discarding a large volume of unopened, perfectly usable products ranging from home goods to toys and electronics.

Cracking down on disposal practices

To date, disposal practices have primarily adhered to the definition of waste as outlined in the EU Waste Framework Directive, which was adopted into UK law through the Environment Act 1995. According to this definition, anything that is “discarded” is considered waste, irrespective of its condition or potential resale value.

This legal framework means that once wholesalers mark items for disposal, they are classified as waste, allowing them to be sent to recovery or disposal facilities without breaking the law.

However, waste legislation also imposes the requirement that every shipment of waste must be accompanied by a transfer note, declaring that the waste hierarchy has been considered. 

Thankfully, steps are being taken to address this growing problem and combat legal loopholes. Following France’s suit, the European Union is tightening regulations on fast fashion and prohibiting the destruction of unsold textiles and footwear altogether, as well as introducing the “digital product passport” to empower consumers with information about a product’s environmental sustainability. 

Meanwhile, the Remade Institute — a multi-stakeholder sustainability group comprising Braksem, Adidas, and Allbirds shoes — was recently awarded a grant of US $50,000 (EUR 46,400) to advance polymer recycling technology, working with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Their efforts aim to explore the reuse of process scrap and the recyclability of post-service parts.

Balancing safety, security, and sustainability 

With so much “red tape” surrounding compliance requirements, product destruction is sometimes the best course of action. If a children’s teddy bear has loose features, or its stuffing is too easily accessible, for example, it can impose choking hazards that are simply not worth the gamble.

Stricter manufacturing standards and more rigorous quality control measures will ensure excellence is maintained at every stage.

This won’t just prevent health and safety risks, but will also minimise the need for product destruction altogether — because items won’t make their way into waste streams in the first place. But sometimes, production waste remains inevitable.

In these instances, manufacturers bear a responsibility to maximise their inherent value by liberating the materials “locked” inside.

Companies and consumers also repeatedly have to address issues with product piracy, brand and product counterfeits, pirate copies, violations of copyright laws or counterfeit textiles. These products are repeatedly confiscated by customs officials and forcibly destroyed as a result.

Nevertheless, the method through which these items, and other genuine wastes, are processed is key — not just for mitigating environmental impact, but also for improving the business’ bottom line.

Mechanical processing and shredding offer a completely traceable and professional destruction process, ensuring certain products can’t re-enter the market while helping to close the loop on waste management practices and divert unsold goods from landfills.

If an item contains metal, for example, this can be liberated for recycling and recovery. Meanwhile, the remaining material can often be shredded to produce a premium SRF with a high calorific value — combatting our ever-depleting, and increasingly harmful, fossil fuel stock.

Of course, the onus isn’t just on retailers and manufacturers to address the challenges of product disposal. As well as advocating for sustainable practices and demanding accountability throughout the supply chain, consumers have an equally important role in managing our throwaway culture.

At UNTHA UK, we don’t just help our customers tackle sustainability challenges – we incorporate a ‘reuse’ mindset into our own engineering services too. So if one of our shredders is nearing the end of its useful life, our first thought is: “Can we rebuild it?”  Why? Because often, with some expert TLC, our robust shredders can be fully refurbished to an outstanding operational standard, which saves the financial – and environmental – cost of commissioning another machine. 

With 4 customers’ shredders currently being rebuilt this week alone, this is a HOT topic right now. So here are 7 things you need to know about UNTHA’s shredder rebuild service:

1. When we say ‘rebuild’, we mean it. We strip the shredder down to its component parts, repairing and/or replacing all worn elements and restoring its aesthetic appearance too.

2. Once the rebuild is complete, the machine is re-plated for ‘full factory rebuild’ authenticity, before it is returned to its former owner or sold to a new customer.

3. This authentication makes it easy to secure finance on the shredder, should it be more convenient to spread the cost of the investment – at this point it is even possible to wrap a service and maintenance agreement, complete with ongoing spare and wear parts, into the finance package.

4. The rebuilt machine is supplied with a 6 month warranty, with a 12 month manufacturer’s warranty provided for all parts replaced. 

5. UNTHA UK can then provide ongoing service and maintenance support – if required – just as we would for a brand new industrial shredder.

6. Thanks to a £1m+ investment in robotic technology, we can also refurbish our customers’ four shaft (RS) cutters, hardening them for added longevity. 

7. There is an optimum time to rebuild a shredder, but defining this depends on the customer’s application, usage patterns and maintenance effectiveness.  Preventative maintenance will prolong the lifespan of the asset, but there will still come a ‘tipping point’ where a rebuild could restore the machine to optimal operating conditions. Go past this and the financial viability of the process may diminish. If in doubt about timings, our advice is “ask us” – we’ll work with you to understand your running conditions and can even advise on the perfect refurb schedule to minimise disruption in your facility, with short-term shredder hire and trade in options available.

We’ve been more and more exposed to the advances of climate change over the last few years – and we are starting to witness a shift in mindset on the impact we can all have in driving change. So, to celebrate all things sustainability, share tips for smarter environmental thinking, and remind each other just how much our carbon impact matters, we’re inviting colleagues, friends of the business, and our peers in the wider industry to take part in this quickfire environmental Q&A.

Next up, it’s Hannah Wray, sales and marketing co-ordinator at UNTHA UK…

Where do you fit into the environmental sector? Tell us a little bit about your role at UNTHA UK…

On a day-to-day basis, I support my colleagues in the sales and marketing departments — assisting with global communication initiatives, aiding the sales function, and ensuring the office operations continue to run smoothly.

Complete the sentence – the UK is great at recycling… 

…but there’s so much more we can do!

Which sector do you think could achieve significant environmental progress this year? 

The WEEE sector. Despite a 34% decrease since 2017 in the total number of electrical items thrown away — and a 60% recycling rate — lots more attention is needed in order to liberate, segregate, and recycle the high-value components that would otherwise remain ‘locked’ inside e-waste.

On a positive note, the Government’s plans to ban disposable vapes this year will address the five-million-strong heap that is discarded each week in the UK — putting human, wildlife, and environmental health at risk.

What do you wish you’d known about the environment, as a child? 

That just one person’s positive contributions to recycling can help foster a better, cleaner future.

What’s the single biggest threat to the environment, in your opinion? 

Air pollution. Mounting CO2 emissions are detrimental to air quality, which is significantly impacting the planet’s inhabitants. 

Share one tip to help people be ‘greener’, at work or at home: 

As we embrace an increasingly digital world, think twice before hitting ‘print’. 

Tell us an environmental statistic that you think people need to know:

Only nine per cent of all plastic produced is recycled.

Complete the sentence – in 100 years’ time… 

I hope the ocean is cleaner, the rainforests are fuller, and the air is less polluted.

As pallet procurement and usage continues to grow worldwide, Lewis Horne, sales consultant at industrial shredding specialist UNTHA UK, explores the overlooked disposal method that could follow suit — not only for optimal space saving, but to reduce operational overheads, curb environmental impact, and enhance health and safety protocols on-site.

In case you missed the original article on page 44-45 of Skip and Waste Magazine, you can catch up below…

AI, automation, and robotics have made their mark in the warehousing industry. As well as improving the efficiency and accuracy of order fulfilment, technology investments have seen significant improvements to inventory management, product inspection and customer service response times, to name just a few. Yet, when it comes to the storage and transportation of goods inside the depot, and distribution of items further afield, pallets are still a mainstay of successful operations. 

Wooden pallets remain the biggest staple at most storage and distribution facilities today. As well as being cost-effective to procure, and therefore kinder to tightening budgets, they’re  a much loved, long used item that facilitates the movement of goods — whether that be component parts coming into manufacturing facilities, outbound goods on their way to final destinations, or the transportation of products all around the world. But could its popular nature also pose a challenge?

The environmental toll of traditional disposal routes

Provided the material is sourced from well-managed forests, wood manufacturing processes can be both sustainable and responsible. However, even if a pallet has been made from sustainably harvested wood, the speed at which it is made redundant, and the disposal route followed thereafter means this simple logistics product could soon pose an environmental challenge. This holds particularly true in bustling operational environments, where space is at a premium, and single-use pallets soon become difficult to house. But even renowned reusable wooden pallets, such as the EPAL-marked Euro Pallet, will eventually reach their end of life. 

As well as taking several years to decompose in landfill sites, wooden pallets can leach harmful chemical preservatives into soil and groundwater, as well as emit potent methane into the atmosphere — a greenhouse gas which has 84 times greater global warming potential than carbon dioxide, over a 20-year period. If incinerated, they can release an equally harmful volume of pollutants that exacerbate climate change, with the energy intensive-nature of the process only adding to the environmental burden. Not to mention, incineration should of course be avoided as much as possible because, in line with waste hierarchy compliance, there are far more ecological routes for handling these redundant materials.

Pallets often travel long distances, on various modes of transport, sit in a number of different weather conditions, carry a variety of goods, and could be abandoned for several weeks or months between uses. As such, they could harbour a variety of health hazards, including: dangerous pathogens like e.coli or salmonella; mould and mould spores; rot; carcinogens, pesticides, or chemical preservatives; bug infestations; and toxins spilled during freight transportation. Naturally, they’re more susceptible to damage too. 

The dangers of pallet stockpiling

While wooden pallets may be easy to stack, in space-constrained facilities they still take up valuable room. Even if sites are not battling with storage space, pallets shouldn’t sit idle.

A significant fire hazard, they represent a ready source of dry fuel, with their frayed edges prone to easy ignition. The makeup of pallet stacks — with upper layers shielding lower ones — optimises airflow in spaces too, increasing the likelihood of fire spread and making suppression efforts more challenging for responders. 

Of course, it’s not only warehouses that are at risk. Any location where pallets are stockpiled, from distribution centres to retail stores, face potential dangers. These fires don’t just impact the entire storage configuration, but have the potential to spread to adjacent buildings, and compromise human health. 

The National Fire Protection Association sets out a number of requirements to limit the hazard — not just for wooden pallets, but for plastic ones too. For example, wooden pallet piles should not exceed 6 ft in height indoors, meanwhile plastic pallets cannot be taller than 4 ft, and both must be separated by a minimum of 8 ft of clear space. These are just small details, part of much more comprehensive guidance that can be easily accessed online.

Maximising the potential of pallet ‘waste’

To prevent inherent fire risks, there is therefore an eagerness to remove worn or damaged pallets from site. Selecting a responsible waste contractor who will ensure they are recycled instead of being destined for landfill, is one thing. But these bulky products soon fill skips, which means the ongoing transportation – not to mention the associated waste management fees – can prove costly and inefficient. This is where reframing the pallet problem from ‘waste’ to ‘wealth’ is truly key.

By processing wooden pallets on site, businesses can take control of their own waste management and transform what was once considered a disposal problem into a valuable resource. Industrial pallet shredders engineered specifically for this application, like UNTHA’s PS1300, offer a sustainable solution that converts used pallets into homogenous wood chips. 

Depending on the grade produced, these can either be used for remanufacturing, animal bedding, or sold for biomass heat recovery or landscaping mulch. Any foreign objects ‘locked’ inside these wooden pallets — such as screws, nails, and other packaging materials — can also be liberated and removed via a magnet, for resale and recycling.

The focus for operators isn’t then just the volume reduction of pallets, environmental benefits, or decrease in waste disposal costs, but the creation of additional revenue streams.

One of our clients, MC Refrigeration, diverted over 24 tonnes of wood waste from landfill just three months after investing in a PS1300 pallet shredder. That’s as well as slashing the £1,000 monthly spend — previously being swallowed by landfill costs, skip hire, and collection fees — and selling the homogenous 30mm wood chip produced from the waste wood pallets for biomass heat recovery.

It’s a case in point that with the right tools and mindset, businesses can turn the mounting pallet problem into a profitable opportunity, paving the way for a more sustainable, closed-loop approach.

Echoing the first edition shared nine years ago, the 2024 Global Waste Management Outlook (GWMO) urges stronger, more collective action to help prevent waste generation, extend adequate affordable Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) management to everyone worldwide, and ensure that all unavoidable waste is managed safely.

Here, we dissect the key takeaways from the report — published jointly by the United Nations Environment Programme and the International Solid Waste Association (ISWA) — and explore the critical role of waste and resource management in driving sustainable development.

Every year, over two billion tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW) is generated worldwide. That’s enough to encircle the Earth’s equator 25 times, or further than travelling to the moon and back. And this figure is projected to increase by 56 per cent to 3.8 billion tonnes by 2050 if urgent action is not taken.

This waste, which is the primary focus of GWMO, includes food waste, packaging, household items including broken furniture and electronic goods, clothes and shoes, as well personal hygiene products, to name a few.

However, a number of concerning additions are still making their way into MSW streams — including hazardous chemical waste, e-waste, textiles, plastics, end-of-life vehicles and waste from mechanics’ garages. This is owed, in part, to rapid volume increases or difficulties in collection, treatment, and other aspects of waste management, and is significantly impacting climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss across the globe.

How does waste management link to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)?

With the interconnection of MSW management, the way global governments, communities, and industries handle waste aligns closely with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, as detailed in the full report. But ultimately, our sector’s influence on the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution can be summarised as follows:

• Climate change: Transporting, processing and disposing of waste generates CO2 and other greenhouse gases and airborne pollutants that contribute to climate change both short and long term. When black carbon settles on the surface of sea ice it accelerates the melting process by absorbing rather than reflecting sunlight. Black carbon has a strong contribution to current global warming, second only to the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.

• Biodiversity loss: Indiscriminate waste disposal practices can introduce hazardous chemicals into soil, water bodies and the air, causing long-term, potentially irreversible damage to local flora and fauna, negatively impacting biodiversity, harming entire ecosystems, and entering the human food chain.

• Pollution: Improper waste management contributes to between 400,000 and one million global deaths annually, due to diseases like diarrhoea, malaria, heart disease, and cancer. At the same time, it poses long-term environmental hazards such as pollution of freshwater sources with pathogens, heavy metals, and harmful chemicals, as well as the release of “forever chemicals” through open burning, which can have detrimental effects on human health and ecosystems.

Because the quantity and composition of MSW varies significantly from one country to another, so too do the corresponding waste management approaches. However, in line with the Waste Hierarchy, it is universally accepted that preventing the generation of waste altogether is the most desired method to adopt. In scenarios where this is not possible, measures relating to recycling, energy recovery, plus heat and emissions control, should follow.

Of course, this is not new information for the UK’s waste management industry. But with such disparities from one community and country to another, it’s clear that significant strides are required to help reach global targets. No longer enough to implement localised solutions, industries need to collaborate on a global scale to meet 2030 and 2050 targets.

The report shows, for example:

1. Every minute, the equivalent of one garbage truck full of plastic is dumped into the ocean.

2. 38 per cent of the MSW generated globally in 2020 was uncontrolled — not collected —  and so by necessity dumped or burned in the open by the waste generator, or collected and then dumped or burned at its final destination. This is projected to increase to 41 per cent by 2050.

3. 540 million tonnes of MSW, or around 27 per cent of the global total, is not collected. While almost all MSW is collected in higher-income regions, less than 40 per cent is collected in lower-income countries such as Oceania, Central and South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa.

4. The Fifth Assessment Report estimated the contribution of the waste sector to GHG emissions at around 3 per cent, meaning countries may have previously underestimated the potential of municipal waste management interventions in fulfilling nationally determined contributions (NDCs).

5. Calculations by ISWA suggest that better waste and resource management could mitigate 15-25 per cent of global GHG emissions.

What can waste management professionals do to empower change?

As a sector, our role is therefore to seek opportunities to move waste management practices up the Waste Hierarchy at any given opportunity — advocating for the prevention of waste from the outset. Using expertise about material resources, we also have a responsibility to support waste reduction, resource efficiency, and circular economy models.

UNTHA UK client, PSH Environmental, has a site powered entirely by solar power, for example. So, not only can it feed energy back to the grid, it can also remain self-sufficient on-site — powering the electric-driven XR shredder that transforms over 96,000 tonnes of waste into an alternative fuel fuel each year, seamlessly transitioning to zero-carbon electricity sourced from the grid when solar power is insufficient.

We must also help governments and municipalities to design systems that are locally appropriate, fit-for-purpose and future-proofed, ensuring they do not lock-in linear resource use and can be adapted to meet the changing needs of society.

For professionals working for waste producers, such as goods manufacturers and retailers, it’s about recognising the private sector’s vital responsibility to reduce the resource footprint of its commercial activities. These organisations can also pursue business models that promote resource efficiency, as well as supporting governments with efforts to regulate waste generation and avoid greenwashing.

Confidential waste – in its many forms – is a complex material stream to handle, given the stringent compliance criteria that surround its destruction. Single shaft shredders have often been considered the ‘go to’ solution for this application, but savvier operators – who care about compliant data destruction, better recycling performance AND profitability – actually turn to four shaft machines. 

Here, Peter Streinik from UNTHA shredding technology, explores why…

‘Confidential waste’ itself is a broad term, which encompasses a variety of different materials ranging from sensitive paper documentation, to electronic files, hard drives and other secure media. Even the postal returns labels on ecommerce retailers’ products constitutes confidential waste, for example.  

Each of these material types need to be securely handled and destroyed to prevent the breach of data, and any consequential financial and/or reputational risks associated with non-compliance.

Given the stringent rules and regulations that govern the handling of these material streams, confidential waste specialists naturally look for destruction solutions – such as industrial shredders – that provide complete peace of mind. The data must be completely destroyed beyond recognition.

Single shaft shredders can get through large amounts of confidential materials at high speeds. But these throughputs come with their challenges.

If sensitive paper documentation, for example, is shredded at a high speed, this can create unnecessary volumes of dust, which jeopardises the quality of the working environment and can even cause a fire risk. The higher speeds notoriously destroy the fibre quality of the paper too, which limits the onward recycling potential of the material.

Compare this to a slower speed, high torque four shaft shredder on the other hand. High torque means that a greater volume of material can be processed without the need to operate at a faster speed, thus protecting throughput expectations. This slower speed also protects the quality of the paper fibre, meaning it has much greater recycling potential. 

Four shaft shredders also shred and re-shred the input material in a single pass, with a ‘mixing’ action for added security. The shredded output material is so ‘jumbled’ that any sensitive information is completely destroyed. Interchangeable screens also mean the particle size can be regulated with ease, ensuring a homogenous fraction that meets even the most stringent security requirements.

UNTHA’s four shaft confidential waste shredders are DIN 66399 certified, up to security level 3, and for P (paper), O (optical), H (hard drives), F (film based products), T (magnetic data carriers), and E (electronic data carriers) classifications. There are several robust, highly configurable solutions in our range, to suit varied customer requirements, from compact but high performance models, through to large and ultra heavy duty alternatives.