Crown’s Benchmark of Sustainability

Over the last year Crown Paints has donated five park benches, manufactured using recycled plastic paint cans, to five local authority care homes and housing schemes to enable residents to enjoy the great outdoors. This all follows on from Crown’s commitment to help local communities on a regular basis.

The benches are made entirely using recycled plastic, a percentage of which comes from paint cans collected as part of Crown’s Can Back scheme, run via its UK-wide network of 140 plus decorating centres. The cans are processed by social enterprise company, NIMTECH at Crown’s two manufacturing plants in Darwen and Hull, before being turned into a limited number of new benches every year.

The attractive dark grey benches are manufactured using 100 per cent recycled materials, including hundreds of used Crown paint cans. Each bench is donated by Crown Paints to projects where it will make the most difference – whether that’s a social housing development, care home, hospital or school.

The five local authorities and housing associations in Cardiff, Folkstone, Middlesex, Shropshire, and the Vale of Glamorgan selected last year had all undergone large-scale redecoration works. Having worked closely with the contractors on these projects, Crown’s specification team felt a bench would be beneficial to the residents of each scheme.

Poplar House retirement complex in Cardiff and Anchor Hanover’s St Clements Court retirement housing scheme in Folkstone both recently underwent refurbishment works carried out by Ian Williams. Residents at both schemes will soon be able to make the most of the outside facilities thanks to the new bench donated to each location by Crown.

Residents of Shropshire Town and Rural Housing’s New Century Court in Oswestry are already enjoying their new bench following a refurbishment by contractor Novus Property Solutions while Habinteg Housing Association also received a new bench for its Moira Close development in north London after a refurbishment programme completed by Bell Group.

The garden space at the West Walk flats scheme in Barry is currently being redeveloped for residents and the new bench donated to the scheme by Crown will give residents somewhere to relax and enjoy their new outdoor space once complete.

Philip Cefai, managing director at Crown Paints commented: “As a manufacturer we’re wholly committed to reducing the amount of waste we produce and by working together with our customers we can limit our impact on the environment. The recycled plastic benches will give residents at the schemes we’ve chosen somewhere to relax, enjoy their outdoor space and socialise together – making it a great way to help improve their wellbeing as well as protecting our environment for future generations to enjoy.”

Based at Crown’s two manufacturing plants in Darwen and Hull, NIMTECH was created as a social enterprise company in partnership with Crown a little over a decade ago. As well as offering local employment opportunities, it also provides a dedicated on-site waste recycling service for all Crown’s operations. Working closely with NIMTECH has enabled Crown to dramatically improve its waste reduction programme so much so that by 2017, 65 per cent of all waste created at the company’s two manufacturing plants, head office and network of decorating centres, was either reused or recycled.

For more information and to find your nearest stockist, please email info@crowntrade.co.uk, call 0330 024 0297 or visit www.crowntrade.co.uk. You can also follow @CrownTradePaint on Twitter, CrownTradePaint on Facebook or Crown Paints on LinkedIn.