Plastic Bank
We strongly believe every business should give back to the environment and implement sustainable ways of operating throughout every aspect of their organisation. However, we understand that we utilise products that may not be friendly to the environment but are essential in the services that we provide. As a result, our team has decided to partner with Plastic Bank by removing 10 bottles from the ocean for every order placed on our website.
From endangering wildlife to harmful nano plastics entering our water supplies, plastic pollution is greatly affecting our environment, hence we believe the donations we provide to Plastic Bank will help make an impact.
Find out more about our partnership.
Better Business Act
As a business that focuses on sustainable growth, ID Card Centre is a member of the Better Business Act. We consistently work towards our goal of giving back to the community and finding solutions that are kind to the planet, and joining the Better Business Act helps us to connect with other companies with the same values.
Our recycling stance
As a business, ID Card Centre holds sustainability as a core value. We are always looking for ways to dispose of used products safely and securely, but we are currently unable to offer a recycling service due to ongoing impacts of the pandemic and changes implemented by recycling services.
We regret that recycling through us isn’t possible, however, to continue our sustainable mission, we work alongside Plastic Bank to reduce the amount of plastic that ends up in the ocean. For every order placed online, 10 plastic bottles are removed and the scheme further supports communities in vulnerable coastal areas.
Whilst we cannot provide a recycling service at this moment in time, there are several ways to recycle your discarded ID products (such as cards, lanyards and ribbons) including:
- TerraCycle – a recycling company dedicated to creating a zero-waste environment, TerraCycle offers a variety of recycling boxes which you simply fill and then return to Terracycle to be recycled. This is recommended recycling solution for events.
- Local recycling centres – some local recycling centres may take plastic cards, but please check before disposing of them.
- IDP Smart Bit ribbon shredder – the printed data can stay on your ribbon after use, so we recommend shredding ribbons after use. The IDP Smart shredder destroys used ribbons, so the data left on them is unusable.
- Secure shredding companies – if you have a secure shredding collection for your documents, contact your collection company as they may also take PVC cards for destruction on site and printer ribbons for secure disposal off site.
At ID Card Centre we care about the environment
We hate waste, but unfortunately, it is inevitable - both with packaging but also errors, which do occasionally happen. To prevent as much waste as possible going into landfill we take the following steps:
- All of our waste is separated and all paper (which is first cross shredded), cardboard, plastic, glass, and metal is sent for recycling.
- We donate some of the useful packaging to our local nursery - the kids love turning empty ribbon boxes into sculptures.
- For every order placed we’ve committed to remove 10 plastic bottles from the ocean via Plastic bank, see our blog for more information.
- We have minimised office printing as much as possible and as such all invoices and statements are sent electronically.
- We strip our used printer ribbons down as much as possible and send the ribbon for secure destruction and the plastic elements for recycling.
- We reuse as many packing materials as we can - including boxes, airbags, bubble wrap and paper.
- We train our team to pack efficiently using minimal packaging whilst ensuring the goods are securely packaged.
- Any scrap PVC cards we generate are securely destroyed on-site by a certified secure shredding company.
- All defunct electrical equipment is disposed of under WEEE regulations.
- Our used tea bags and coffee grounds and food waste are composted.
- All plastic, metal and glass cans, bottles and containers are recycled.
- We have installed solar panels on the office roof.
- We've replaced all of our office lighting with energy-saving LED panels.
As we say, we hate waste, love the environment and care for what we do!