The old saying goes “from little things, big thing grow” and that probably best sums up Kytons move towards being a greener business over the last year. One big project – new solar panels, plus a whole lot of little measures are adding together to reduce waste and reduce our footprint on the planet. Plus many of them are saving us money too – also a positive in the current economic climate.
Over the last 12 months, Kytons has been involved in two projects helping us move towards a green future – one run by Marion City Council and local company Rawtec and one by Department of Industry, Innovation and Science. Both of these programs helped us to identify small and big things we can do in our business to help us work towards a greener future as well as looking at what is happening around the world with packaging, waste and more.
Some of the ideas are big, some are small, but they have given us a lens through which to think about everything we do in the business.
In May we had 40kw of solar panels added to the roof of our premises at Edwardstown. Not only are they saving us electricity (and unfortunately with ovens and cool rooms, bakehouses do use a lot of electricity), but we are also doing our small bit to help with global warming and a greener economy.
Some of the smaller things, especially around food and organic waste, have been gradually implemented and are making a big difference with how much waste is going into our general waste bin :
Changing Mini Lamington Trays from plastic to cardboard – we love our new milk board mini lamington trays that you can now recycle through your council recycling system (our regular size lamingtons have always been in milk board trays. Not only have we done away with the plastic, but we’ve also made them look rather pretty with a touch of Kytons pink and our logo.
A bigger “chook bin”. Affectionately called the “Chook Bin” we have recently upgraded the size of our green waste bin. While we try to send all edible, but unsaleable, products to Ozharvest, Foodbank and Kickstart for Kids (cos the best thing to do with leftover food is to feed people), we do still generate unsaleable, scrap or other organic waste. Plus there are some items we didn’t realise could go into our organic waste – like hand towel!
Paper hand towel bins – Yes did you know that hand towel can be put into the green waste bin (and that goes for your household green waste bin too)? Neither did we until recently- so we now have separate bins in the bathrooms and bakehouse to collect paper hand towel in compostable bags so they can go into the organic waste bin. Green waste collection is not only cheaper than general waste, but it is made into compost that is used by farmers and councils.
Direct Collect Recycle Bin – Have you heard about this great company operating in Adelaide? They’ll lend you a blue wheelie bin to collect your 10c recycling items, then collect it when it’s full. You can either receive 7c per item for yourself or 10c per item donated to your favourite charity. Kytons staff recycling cash is going to VarietySA.
There are many other initiatives that have come out of these two programs, that we will slowly work our way through as practicalities and economics are right, but they have certainly changed the way we as owners and our staff look at everything we do (both at work and at home) – and that can only be a positive thing. Sharon
