Henry Colbeck Case Study: A Circular Economy Success!

Background: Collecting Used Cooking Oils.

For almost 20 years we have been collecting Used Cooking Oils & Fats ( UCO ) from our Customers. Our ethos has always been to be ‘more than just a supplier’ and helping our Customers to dispose of an inconvenient waste product was at the heart of beginning our UCO Collection Service. At a time when Caterers and Manufacturers were paying for their UCO to be taken away, or potentially disposing of them in a non -environmentally friendly way, we offered our service Free of Charge! Times have moved on and for some time now we have paid for the UCO we collect.

Environmental Benefits: Everyone Wins!

ISCC Certified and working to Environmental Management Standard 14001, we were keen to improve our environmental footprint and realised that as a supplier of ‘fresh’ cooking oils, we could turn a ‘cradle to grave’ product into a ‘cradle to cradle’ one by recycling the UCO. This Circular Economy not only benefits our Company but that of our Customers too, by significantly reducing the carbon impact of our cooking oils and the frying process.

Keeping Businesses Legal

The law requires businesses to dispose of UCO in a safe and responsible manner, or risk fines of up to £5,000. We are a certified and trusted collector of UCO, fully licensed to collect, transport and dispose of the waste in a legal manner. We provide controlled waste transfer notes with every collection and they need to be retained for a minimum of two years. We can keep you legally compliant and give you greener credentials too!

Our UCO Recycling Plant: Vision to Operation.

Achieving Circular Economy success was the vision of our Chairman Bill Colbeck, who led us to invest considerable energy and resources into the exploration of UCO processing methods over several years, both in the UK and Europe. We then applied that knowledge to refine our own processing system.

In March 2018 we brought our state of the art UCO Recycling Plant fully into operation in Gateshead, where we clean and recycle all waste edible oils, allowing them to be turned into Green Energy, including Electricity, Bio Diesel, or even Aviation Fuel. We are also in control of our IBC cleaning onsite in a newly replaced cleaning system.

Customer Marketing Benefits: Boosting the Customer Brand!

By choosing Henry Colbeck to collect and recycle waste oils, our Customers can confidently make a marketing virtue of the environmental positives of their businesses and their Circular Economy success – giving their Customers another great reason to buy from them! We’ve made Free Point of Sale available to our UCO Collection Customers too to communicate this great news internally to their teams.

We Pay 4 Your UCO!

We pay to collect UCO and place all of your waste oil credits in an area that links to your account, so you can access your credits upon request at any time, or save them up all year – the choice is yours – or you can leave them to go onto your main account to take as a credit. Call today for a quote on our prices.