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When purchasing equipment for waste and recycling collections, low-cost doesn’t always mean high-value, says Cromwell Polythene Managing Director James Lee.

With budgets under constant pressure, spending money on consumables is often a low priority – especially for basic ones such as refuse sacks. However, even ‘basic’ products can vary in quality. A ‘premium’ product offers quality, performance and consistency rather than potential short-term savings. Sometimes this will mean paying a higher price, but there’s truth in the saying ‘you get what you pay for’.

It can also be tempting to try and make savings with a ‘one size fits all’ approach; unfortunately this can backfire with even the simplest products. For example, if the liners in your bins are too small, they cannot be fitted correctly, and effective capacity is reduced. Oversized liners are no better as they are too big to secure around the top of the bin and simply fall in when anything is placed in it. That’s why we supply over 400 different sacks and bags of almost every size, shape and colour imaginable.

As a producer of polythene products, we have a closed loop sustainability strategy that not only sees recycled materials incorporated as much as possible into the products that we produce, but also encourages the return of post-industrial and post-consumer plastics, board and other materials to the production cycle for re-processing.

What to look for

There are a number of industry standards and third-party accreditations to help identify reliable suppliers. We are founding members of the Cleaning & Hygiene Suppliers Association (CHSA) Refuse Sack Standard Accreditation Scheme, for instance. The CHSA code of practice provides customers with an assurance of professional conduct, customer service and quality.

For more information visit www.cromwellpolythene.co.uk