Assington Autos, one of the biggest ‘End of Life’ vehicle recycling centres in East Anglia, established in 2017 by Frederick Cook, become the 500th company to be presented with The Carbon Charter Award, from Suffolk County Council. 

The Carbon Charter was set up in 2010 by Suffolk County Council and the Environment Agency. Since then, it has given 738 Carbon Charter awards to 500 companies.

It is an accreditation for businesses who are committed to reducing their impact on the environment, by cutting their carbon emissions, supporting their local community and developing green spaces.

The panel from the Carbon Charter was particularly impressed that despite significant growth in the business, Assington Autos fuel usage has remained the same and has achieved an emissions reduction of 37% in the last two years.

Assington Autos were also praised for their biodiversity efforts on site and in the wider community, as well as activity in the local community, supporting NHS workers, the local fire service, food banks and other local community groups. Ultimately, Assington were awarded the Gold Level of the award, highlighting the commitment of the company to Net Zero by 2040.

To read the full article, and learn more about Assigton Autos, click here. 

UK set to be environmental sick man of Europe if British politicians don’t act

Industry alarm at lack of progress to update UK waste regulations –

pressure mounts

- India’s ATMA reveals UK role in export of polluting baled end-of-life tyres

- European Union updates legislation to clamp down on polluting waste exports to non-OECD nations

- DEFRA’s silence must end, the government must do the right thing

TRA continues to demand Government response to tackle abuse of end-of-life whole tyres exported from UK

Britain will be the environmental sick man of Europe if government doesn’t not act soon to update waste regulations, warns the UK’s Tyre Recovery Association (TRA). Revealing the correspondence underway with the Secretary of State for the Environment and his department, the TRA makes public the issues the UK government are failing to engage with.

At the end of February, European Union legislators passed the first steps to tightening export of waste materials from its members. End-of-life waste tyres were one of the items specifically referenced in the EU’s updated Waste Shipment Regulation. Under the updated EU regulation, waste cannot be sent to non-OECD countries unless the country concerned is willing to import it and can demonstrate the environmentally sound management of waste through auditing by independent bodies and monitoring by the European Commission. The legislation will leave Britain with the unenviable reputation as the only major European nation legally able to export baled end-of-life tyres to countries like India.

Figures recently released by India’s Automotive Tyre Manufacturers’ Association (ATMA) showed that India imported around 800,000 tonnes of scrapped tyres between April and November 2023. The UK and European Union member nations were the majority contributors. In updating its regulations, the EU recognises that safe and efficient shipments of waste are key for a circular economy.

The TRA and other professional recyclers fear that with waste exports to common destination in Asia banned, irresponsible British operators and exporters are the likely receptacles for those negligent European operators looking to dump their product abroad.

At the end of February, the TRA wrote to the DEFRA minister responsible for wate, Robbie Moore MP, asking him to push officials into action saying, “[As the Minister responsible] ensure we do the right and best thing - respond to the Indian calls to only export shredded tyres, grow our own circular environmentally responsible market and follow the very successful Australian example”. Australia banned the export of most whole ELTs in 2020.

The TRA’s February letter went on, “To be blunt now is time the UK government acknowledged that far from tackling this environmental assault, current policies enable some UK operators to facilitate serious environmental harm …

“It is embarrassing for us as an industry to know such malpractice takes place, it must be humiliating for those leading British policy making to know how far the reality has drifted from their rhetoric. It is hard to find the green, environmental or circular in the current UK waste tyre policy framework, yet the solutions are clear and simple.”

Peter Taylor OBE, Secretary General of the TRA, said:

“Without the necessary policy update Britain will shortly be the environmental sick man of Europe, home to unscrupulous operators taking malign advantage of the European Union’s tighter rules. Britain is set to be the only European nation exporting environmental waste beyond its shores without proper scrutiny or oversight.

“Ministers have been sitting on their hands for too long, this must stop. The steps are simple and inexpensive. Four years ago this was acknowledged with the commitment to end the T8 exemption, yet still we wait for that legislation. Now we see the European Union taking decisive action and, rather than recognising the benefits from aligning with that regulatory approach, our government refuses to engage. Are they really happy to sit back and watch our environmental responsibilities shipped to the other side of the world without comparable oversights?

“Currently the UK has at least 150,000 tonnes of licenced idle domestic recycling capacity of its own, but the business case for maintaining this is being undermined by political lethargy. If the government acted, we could be at the front of the environmental pack - building the circular economy we all want to see. But if the government does not act, we will see a decline in standards. The malady of inertia is settling in and leading us down a path to being the environmental sick man of Europe.”

Silverlake Automotive Recycling [Silverlake], one of the UK’s leading automotive recyclers, has invested in six new transporters in order to meet increased customer demand for salvage collections and four new reclaimed parts delivery vans to service the growth in reclaimed parts orders from its bodyshop customers.  The Silverlake fleet, which operates nationally, now stands at 30 transporters, 12 parts delivery vans and includes two large HGV haulage trucks, used to reduce CO2 emissions with bulk deliveries of reclaimed parts to the company’s Midlands based hub.    

Servicing every aspect of the insurance and automotive industry to include salvage, vehicle re-marketing via Salvage Market, e2e’s online auction, and the supply of VRA certified reclaimed parts on a national basis; Silverlake is investing for the future.  The business is scaling to process 50,000 vehicles p.a. at its 30 acre Authorised Treatment Facility in Southampton.  Committed to sustainability and an SBTi target to reduce its carbon emissions by 42% by 2030, the business has also developed bespoke software to intelligently manage its fleet for maximum efficiency and minimum CO2 emissions whilst ensuring it exceeds customer service expectations.   

Steve Diaper, Logistics Manager at Silverlake comments: “Expanding the fleet gives us greater transport capacity to support our e2e insurer clients, meet increasing recovery needs and to onboard new customers smoothly.  The new recovery vehicles are top of the range Mercedes Atego Euro 6 Transporters designed for performance, reliability and driver safety which makes them an ideal addition to our professional fleet.  Demand for our reclaimed parts has grown by 200% over the last 12 months.  Our bulk delivery HGV haulage trucks combined with the additional delivery vans will help to ensure we continue to meet our nationwide 48-hour turnaround on in stock orders and manage our CO2 emissions.  Confidence in our services is at an all-time high and we are equipping the business and our people to continue to deliver the market leading customer experience we are known for.”