Post from Eco Voice | June 15, 2022 |
For more than 35 years, Harry the Hirer has been a name synonymous with hiring equipment, furniture and AV equipment for parties and events around Australia. Fast forward to 2022, Harry the Hirer boasts more than 500 employees and 80,000 sqm of storage space, firmly establishing itself as an Australian institution in the hiring industry.
During Harry the Hirer’s growth and success, they have been very strategic and methodical in how they connect with like-minded organisations in their operations and sustainable thinking and execution.
Biogone is one of those companies which ticked all the boxes in offering landfill-biodegradable products to businesses which supports sound sustainable practices.
According to Ben Walker, Manager Procurement, Harry the Hirer, Biogone has been a perfect fit for the company.
“At Harry’s we have thousands of individual furniture items that require the use of a bag as our first line of defence against dust and debris in the warehouse.”
“We’ve tried a multitude of alternatives over the years, but bags work best.”
“The biggest problem with bags has always been the environmental impact, but Biogone’s landfill-biodegradable bags have helped to solve that problem.”
“We have some very randomly sized furniture that requires a specific custom bag, and Biogone has been very obliging in helping us find solutions.”
Ben Walker says that plastic bags have been used by Harry’s for a long time but were made from virgin material and not biodegradable.
“As much as we could we’d recycle but this was not always possible, having this landfill- biodegradable option means that in the instances where we can’t recycle them, we can feel a little better about knowing they’ll actually break down if they do end up in landfill.”
Harry the Hirer is serious about sustainability, establishing a sustainability committee where they are constantly looking at new ways to reduce their carbon footprint and improve our sustainability practices.
“We have a range of initiatives in place, and a long-term plan for implementation of improvements across the entire business.
“We are in the process of ramping up our recycling programs for a whole range of different materials, as well as sourcing new environmentally friendly and sustainable alternative materials to some of the older, more problematic ones.
“An example of this would be our current aim to shift from the use of Foamed PVC printing materials to recycled/recyclable paper/card-based options.”
Quantity demands for the Biogone biodegradable bags at Harry’s has grown significantly with several thousand bags being used per month during peak use times.
“We also use thousands of metres of Biogone’s landfill-biodegradable pallet stretch, instead of the conventional type.
For Harry the Hirer, there are plans for all their bags to cross to Biogone versions.
“We’ve managed utilise a far more environmentally attractive product and done so in a commercially competitive way.”
According to Dr Ross Headifen, founder, Biogone, the company is always delighted to find a new company who understands the plastic waste problem and is prepared to do something about it.
“Harry the Hirer were using a large number of bags and had come realise the disposal problem they were causing to the environment. It is people in management like this who can see long term visions not only for their business but for the impact their business has on our environment, that will be the people leading us forwards to reduce our plastic waste problem.”