As farmers across the West Country have ploughed on through the coronavirus crisis to provide safe, traceable and affordable food for the nation, Greenaway Recycling has been by their side, working tirelessly to remove waste farm plastic as cheaply, efficiently and quickly as possible.
While the pandemic has altered all of our lives to a greater or lesser extent, the Devon-based firm鈥檚 mission statement of 鈥減lastic disposal made easy鈥 has remained unchanged over the past few months of this unprecedented lockdown.
From their headquarters at Marley Head, near South Brent, Greenaway Recycling has, since 2006, been providing an essential waste plastic removal service for farmers right across Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset.
Mark Causey, who is a joint partner of the company alongside Andrew Dayment and John Millman, said it has largely been 鈥渂usiness as usual鈥 in collecting everything from bale wrap and string to feed and fertiliser bags, silage sheets and old tractor tyres.
鈥淲e鈥檝e been open throughout the lockdown because we are classified as key workers. We have to remove waste from farms for not only health and safety reasons, but for rodent reasons too,鈥 he explained.
鈥淲e will remove all farm plastic, unsorted and in bulk. We will also take away end-of-life tyres. We will then issue a waste transfer note to cover farm assurance and the Environment Agency.
鈥淚t鈥檚 quite a unique service for the South West as we鈥檒l come along, scoop up all your unsorted plastic, chuck it into our lorry, weigh it and then send the farmer a bill which is worked out on the weight of the material that they鈥檝e sent to us. So the cleaner and tidier they store their plastic, the lesser the bill. Simple as that.鈥
When asked if business has been busy, Mark replied simply: 鈥淰ery, very busy indeed. It鈥檚 our busiest time of the year at the moment, because at the end of the winter farmers want to clean out their plastic store and get those fertiliser bags gone. I would say that it has been even busier than last year.鈥
He laughed: 鈥淚 think the farmers are pleased with our service, but not very happy with our bills! I think there would be some considerable problems on-farm if we hadn鈥檛 been there throughout the lockdown to remove their waste plastic.鈥
Just like many other businesses, Greenaway Recycling, which has five employees, has had to adapt its way of working in order to comply with the Government鈥檚 strict social distancing measures, ensuring the safety of both their customers and staff at all times.
Mark said: 鈥淲e鈥檝e had to follow social distancing in the sorting yard, make some alterations to our canteen arrangements and when we鈥檝e turned up on the customer鈥檚 farm we have obviously had to socially distance there.
鈥淏ut, to be honest, we鈥檝e just used our common sense. I know that鈥檚 a very open-ended phrase, but we鈥檝e not done anything that we didn鈥檛 need to do and we鈥檝e tried to be in a situation where we鈥檝e done more things remotely, so for example most of our payment is done by BACS.鈥
He added: 鈥淲e don鈥檛 wear face shields, but we wear protective gloves and have tried to make sure that the operators on-site wash their hands as often as they can, although they do wear gloves to handle the plastic anyway.
鈥淚t鈥檚 just about being sensible. It鈥檚 worked for us, probably more through luck than judgement. At present we haven鈥檛 had any members of staff with symptoms of the virus, so we haven鈥檛 needed to test or anything like that, which is good.鈥
Of the changes made to proceedings in recent months, Mark admitted that the shift from physical to online meetings looks set to stay in place once the lockdown is over.
He explained: 鈥淲e normally have a monthly meeting with our staff, but we鈥檝e been doing all of that through Zoom [video conferencing] or Microsoft Teams, depending on who is organising it. We鈥檝e found that we鈥檝e been able to do a lot more remotely, rather than having to go and see somebody.
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鈥淲e like to think of ourselves as a very personal company. What we鈥檇 really like to do is go round to somebody鈥檚 house, sit down with them and have a chat, with a cup of tea and a biscuit.
鈥淏ut since the lockdown started we鈥檝e found that if we鈥檙e due to have a meeting, there isn鈥檛 really any need to get in the car and drive to somebody else鈥檚 house as we can do it remotely, saving fuel and time. Yes it鈥檚 not quite so personal, but it gets things sorted.鈥
As the country slowly emerges from lockdown, with more and more businesses reopening their doors, Mark said he is feeling optimistic about Greenaway Recycling鈥檚 future.
鈥淎bsolutely so. We think that we offer a unique service. We鈥檙e gaining customer numbers all of the time and with the lockdown easing up, that will make it easier for us to gain new customers,鈥 he said.
鈥淔or most of our customers, the lockdown will have affected them, but probably not as much as it has other people in the country. A lot of farmers may hardly leave the end of their farm lane anyway, so having to stay at home hasn鈥檛 really affected them too much.
鈥淗owever, there could be some downturns [as we emerge from the lockdown] in that there will potentially be more traffic on the roads and, as we use more fuel, the cost of that could go up too 鈥 because that鈥檚 come back significantly already.鈥
He concluded: 鈥淢ost people just want solutions, they don鈥檛 want any grief and hassle. They want somebody to rock up, fire a silver bullet and sort their problem out, which is exactly what we do.鈥
