More than £150,000 spent on electric vehicles by Hartlepool recycling company

A recycling firm has reinforced its green credentials by investing over £150,000 in electric vehicles over the past year.

Hartlepool-based waste management specialists J&B Recycling, dedicates itself to good waste management which it says is essential in safeguarding the environment from the toxic effects of inorganic and biodegradable elements in waste.

Mismanagement of waste can cause water contamination, soil erosion and air contamination, which leads to a loss of biodiversity, climate change and global warming, it points out.

And over the last 10 years, J&B Recycling has invested millions of pounds in its operations to ensure the most efficient recycling processes.

The team has now turned its attention to the long-term sustainability of its operations across the business and among the targets has been the electrification of its vehicles.

Managing director Vikki Jackson-Smith said: “We understand the importance of working sustainably to help tackle global challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, waste, and pollution and we are taking a long hard look at all our internal operations to make sure we are leading the way in our approach.

“We’re operating 24 road vehicles and 16 mobile plant vehicles on fossil fuels, so one area we identified early in the process was the need to move towards more electric commercial vehicles.”

Electric vehicles can cut harmful greenhouse gas emissions by 50% or more compared to internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles.

J&B operations director Matthew Tyrie said: “We trialled our first electric forklift truck last year to ensure it could work effectively on site.

“The trial was a great success and we have now purchased two electric forklifts, with a third on its way.

“We recently changed energy supplier to ensure we have a 100% sustainable energy supply, which is all generated through renewable sources.

“Last year we installed an electric vehicle charging point in the car park, with another planned for later this year as we already have some EVs and plug-in hybrids in our fleet of company cars.”