With an ever-growing number of people keen to reduce their environmental impact, there’s never been a more important time to share our ‘green’ thinking and tips to help people reduce, reuse and recycle.

That’s the reason for this monthly Q&A, and next up to explore why the environment matters to them, is Rob Sharp, service engineer at UNTHA UK…

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

As an experienced factory trained UNTHA service engineer, my days are heavily involved with installing new shredding systems, routine maintenance, and reactive repairs. I tend to have a lot of customer contact both on site and offering over the phone support. It’s our priority to be there for customers whenever they need us.

Complete the sentence – the UK is great at recycling…

Paper. On average, as a nation, we recycle 80% of the paper we use. To put that into perspective, we use approximately 9.9 million tonnes of paper a year in the UK alone.

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

Tyres, mattresses, and other common waste streams that are often described as ‘difficult’ to handle. With the introduction of the UNTHA XR3000XC high torque shredder and the new UNTHA ZR2400, these tricky waste streams can be delt with in a way that was never imagined possible.

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

I didn’t realise that everyone has a part to play, no matter how big or small. Whether that be separating waste streams for recycling collections at home or providing cutting edge recycling equipment, as we do here at UNTHA. We only have one world – let’s look after it!

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

Species extinction and loss of biodiversity! It’s estimated that species extinction is 10,000 times the natural rate when humans are involved, taking land for farming and industry. We need to strike a balance with nature and if we take, we must give back and keep the scales level.

Share 1 tip to help people be ‘greener’, at work or at home:

Simply separating your recyclable waste, turning off lights when not in use, and turning down your heating by two degrees is a huge step in the right direction.

If you were prime minister for the day, what’s the one thing you’d do to improve the UK’s sustainability agenda?

Make sure we are doing more to tackle food waste. Around 35-45% of all food we grow is wasted, which is a shocking figure when you think how many hungry people we could feed, and how much energy would be saved by effectively dealing with this waste stream.

Complete the sentence – in 100 years’ time…

I hope the human species is thriving and living in harmony with our fragile mother earth. I would love to imagine that by then war, famine, and disease would be a distant memory.