WTW Cinemas accepts a share of the UK’s commitment to a reduction in Carbon Dioxide emissions by attaining greater efficiency in total energy consumption. All equipment at our cinemas (including HVAC) is serviced at regular intervals to insure it is running at peak efficiency. Lighting throughout our cinemas has been, or is in the process of being converted to low energy usage LED lamps where possible. All modern sinks & toilets installed at WTW Cinemas feature low water usage technologies, and those who do not will be updated when refurbishment takes place. Areas such as staff rooms have sensor lights in them so they are only in use when the rooms are being used, and this will be extended to other rooms when refurbishments take place. External lighting is on timers to ensure that external lighting is being used for controlled periods.
WTW Cinemas seek to reduce the impact on the environment wherever possible with respect to transport by sourcing local products and services wherever possible to reduce travel time. Unnecessary travel will be avoided by staff, with staff encouraged to get to work by cycling, on foot or using public transport.
We separate our waste for recycling. All cinemas have various recycling pick ups from our main waste contractors – typically, waste is broken down into: plastic recycling, cardboard & paper recycling and glass recycling. This means that we go through all of the waste left in auditoria after shows and separate them into relevant bags ready to go to recycling centres with our waste collections.
This has lead to drastic reduction in the amount of waste going into general refuse collections – in some cases cutting up to ten bags of general waste down to just one.
We’ve been working hard to determine which food packaging can be replaced with more environmentally friendly alternatives.
In January 2018, we started to introduce a brand new range of compostable packaging from Vegware. This includes compostable coffee cups, straws and recycled napkins.
Vegware coffee cups are lined with PLA rather than plastic. PLA is made from plants, is compostable with regular food waste, biodegrades within 12 weeks and uses 72% less carbon than plastic alternatives. The Vegware straws are made entirely from PLA. Coffee cup lids are made from CPLA and are also completely compostable.
Elsewhere, we’ve been looking at all of our other packaging.
This is an ongoing process. Some of our partner companies have specific methods of packaging that can’t easily be changed, but we continue to work with suppliers to find alternative packaging methods.
Put very simply, this is any item of plastic packaging that will be used just once before being thrown away. Whilst plastic drinks bottles come under this banner, so do items such as balloon stalks, tea stirrers and cotton buds. We’re already pleased to assert that we don’t use any of the latter items here, but we do still sell drinks in plastic bottles – so, why is this?
In cinemas, we sell bottled soft drinks – including water – in plastic bottles that are known by the product from which they are manufactured, PET. PET stands for polyethylene terephthalate, and it’s a form of polyester (just like the clothing fabric).
PET bottles are classed as a single-use plastic, however, one that is completely recyclable and has a lower carbon footprint than alternatives.
We recycle all plastic bottles that are left on our premises, and we know that 95% of the bottles we sell never leave the building, with the vast majority of customers leaving them at their seats after the film or depositing them in a bin which we then sort at the end of the night. We know that once recycled, a plastic bottle can be back on the shelf as another product within 6 weeks, and we also know that bottled drinks suppliers are starting to use more recycled content in their bottles.
When we talk about carbon footprint, we mean the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere as a result of any given process. Looking at drinks bottles, we take into account their manufacture, transport and end of life disposal or recycling method – as an example, because plastic bottles are much lighter than glass, they take less energy to transport between locations. A plastic bottle has a carbon footprint just 1/4 that of an aluminium can, and 1/5 that of a glass bottle. This is why the major drinks suppliers, such as PepsiCo or Coca Cola are focusing on recycling their products, rather than replacing them with alternatives that may not be better for the environment.
A lot! Have a look at the following key ranges and items to see where the individual products go:
Popcorn cartons: These are made from cardboard and go in our Cardboard recycling.
Potato Snacks cartons: These are made from cardboard and go in our Cardboard recycling.
Pre-bottled drinks products: These are made from PET and go in our Plastic recycling.
Alcohol bottles: Every Alcohol line we sell is packaged in a 330ml or 575ml “NRB” bottle. This means they go out with Glass recycling.
Nuts cartons: These are made from cardboard and go in our Cardboard recycling.
Coffee cups: Our new Vegware range is fully compostable.
Old cinema tickets and receipts: we sift through our waste and ensure that these go out with Paper recycling.
So what can’t be recycled? Sadly, some food packaging just can’t go into recycling – this includes sweets wrappers and pouches, but we are working on a solution – the Nestle Group are working on a project to ‘take back’ sweets wrappers, and we hope to see some progress on this early in 2020.
We re-use the majority of our “outer” packaging. Where items are delivered to us in boxes, we try to re-use them wherever possible. This means that when we ship things between cinemas, or we ship out competition prizes, we always re-use what we have. We don’t buy packaging – ever. We always try to reuse jiffy envelopes as well, and anything that has been used in padding and packages sent to us. Once we can no longer use a box or other packaging, it goes into our regular recycling collections.
Some of our staff with a passion for gardening love to take home our used coffee grounds to spread on their gardens. If you’d like us to save you some, we’re more than happy to do so – just ask in the Cinema.
We’ve overhauled our policies in this area, working towards the following:
Clean desk policy: if it doesn’t need to be printed, don’t print it! We try to do as much of our work as possible without needing to print off reams of paper. We’ve added new back-office resources to convert many procedures to paperless. This is an ever changing landscape as there of course some things where this is unavoidable. Where we have to print things that only ever get used once, we re-use all paper to print on both sides and to be used as note paper etc. Once we’re finished, this goes in paper recycling.
Cutting down on till receipts: we’ve modified all of our EPOS systems to only print a receipt if you ask for one. No more endless printing of receipts that go straight in the bin or on the auditorium floor.
Reducing printed leaflets: we only print as many leaflets as we know we’re going to need, and if we run out, only then do we have more printed. Our aim is to run out of leaflets as they approach their “end by” date, rather than having piles left to dispose of.
Refusing un-wanted POS: we’ve asked that publicity companies not send us anything that we won’t be able to display. In the past, publicity sent to us that could not be displayed just sat waiting to go in recycling. Now that we’re receiving less un-needed items, we have less to dispose of.
In the last five years we’ve made significant changes to the way we light our cinemas. We have undertaken a program of conversion from conventional filament lamp bulbs to LED. This has significantly cut down on the number of lamp bulbs that we dispose of. We have committed that every new-build or refurbished cinema will only feature LED lighting. Existing filament and CFL lamps are disposed of in line with WEEE regulations.
Cinema projectors typically use a high-powered Xenon lamp as their light source. Xenon lamps are made of a quartz envelope, filled with highly pressurised Xenon gas, and a tungsten electrode. These type of lamps can’t be disposed of by most lamp refuse contractors. We have an agreement in place with our supplier who collect our lamps and break them down for onward recycling. This is done wholly within WEEE regulations.
There has been a lot of press coverage lately regarding the use of plastic packaging and how it is unsafe in a marine environment. We absolutely agree with all points made in the press and other media; and so:
We don’t use or sell “multipack” cans or bottles (that use plastic rings to link items) anywhere. Our staff are encouraged not to bring these items to work where possible.
Pallet straps: where we receive goods by pallet, and the goods are secured using pallet strap, we make sure we cut the straps into smaller pieces so they are unable to form a loop of any kind. Ultimately pallet straps have to go out with general waste that usually ends up in landfill; whilst not ideal, we certainly try to keep them as safe as possible.
Straws: We now use Vegware‘s paper straw at all venues.
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