Meet The Tufcot Supplier – Techlan Ltd

At government and corporate levels there is a sharply increased awareness of the need to minimise waste.  This features daily in the popular and business media.

Waste is expensive and environmentally unacceptable. Disposing of potentially usable material and paying a high price to do so makes poor business sense.  On the other hand efficient waste management makes a positive contribution to the bottom line.

It is for these reasons that many international organisations are making a commitment to sustainability and seeking to achieve the goal of zero waste.

Initiatives for sustainability and zero waste are being achieved through the model of the Circular Economy.  It is a model that seeks to keep resources in use for as long as possible, extract the maximum value from them whilst in use, then recover and regenerate products and materials at the end of each service life.

It is exactly this model that the unique approach developed by Techlan has been proven to support. Techlan was formed late 2009 with the specific objective of developing innovative technology for recycling contaminated substrates.

Although applicable to many sectors, Techlan’s initial focus has been on the composites industry.  Techlan has developed a process that gives a second or third use to materials that have previously been treated as waste and of limited value.

The manufacture of composites, used extensively in aircraft manufacture, wind energy and the automotive sectors, consumes vast quantities of silicon coated release paper in the manufacturing process.  Typically such materials are used once and then disposed of.

Safe and ethical disposal of this release paper is a global problem.

Residual surface contaminant means that the paper cannot be re-used and makes it unacceptable as a raw material in other sectors.

It is also costly to dispose of. Pulping and reconstituting the product is expensive and wasteful in its use of energy and other resources. Disposal through landfill or incineration is very costly and becoming increasingly subject to legislation, whilst selling it to external trading companies fails to guarantee the duty of care that is critical to the corporate governance of major companies.

And since composites are particularly used in the wind energy and aerospace sectors it means that these volumes of waste are increasing whilst disposal becomes more difficult and more costly.

Put simply, the Techlan process converts waste into a high value, high quality raw material.

It achieves this without using harmful chemicals or large quantities of resources such as water and energy.  The process itself is environmentally friendly.

Techlan has developed and patented a method that removes surface contamination from high value substrates – in the case of the composite industry silicon coated release paper – so making it acceptable for re-use elsewhere.

Once cleaned the paper is converted to customer widths/lengths for resupply into alternative sectors as a replacement for virgin paper.

The paper, that was previously waste, is now being converted into a high value raw material.  It is an excellent example of the Circular Economy working in practice.

The solution means all parties benefit.

The composite manufacturer saves on the cost of waste disposal and makes an important step towards the achievement of zero waste.  At the same time they discharge their duty of care through disposing of waste in a totally safe and accountable manner.

There is even the potential to re-introduce the cleaned paper into the production lines of these companies resulting in very large cost savings.

The customers that purchase the recycled paper from Techlan are major beneficiaries.

They can significantly reduce their raw material costs, without sacrificing quality, as the Techlan paper is typically of a higher specification than that they used previously.

They make a contribution to sustainability through substituting recycled grade for virgin product.  And they are able to reduce stocking costs through purchasing from Techlan on shorter lead times and in smaller order quantities.

Techlan has already enjoyed widespread recognition and awards.

To find out more visit our web site www.techlanltd.co.uk or contact Mark Thompson on 07779 133943.