Cedo’s 2025 green target and the dedicated team behind it

And it quickly becomes evident, on a visit to its Telford base, that the company, which started out in 1965, as the ‘Poly-Lina company’, is very much on track to deliver.

It is now on target to be climate neutral by 2025 after the company, which has manufacturing facilities in Telford, Poland and Vietnam, announced, on Earth Day, it had brought its goal forward five years from 2030. It’s part of its long term goal to be net-zero.

Cedo is Europe’s largest supplier of private label household consumable products – from bin bags, refuse sacks, food storage to clingfilm, manufacturing millions of bin bags a year with 100 per cent recycled contents.

Its UK headquarters in Telford consists of two manufacturing sites. Halesfield 11, where it mainly manufactures refuse sacks and indoor pedal bin liners, and Halesfield 19, where it makes a variety of food wrap products like cling film.

It employs over 2,000 people globally, and is a major employer in Shropshire, with 300 workers based in Telford, which is powered by 100 per cent green energy. Sustainability is at its heart.

A successful company, delivering quality goods with the environment at the forefront of its mind.

Martin Burdekin, as Group Sustainability Director, leads the development and implementation of Cedo’s sustainability strategy across global operations which span the UK, Europe and Asia.

Cedo sources supplies of recycled materials from a dedicated recycling centre based in Holland and re-processes films from household, industry and agricultural waste. The company supplies major supermarket and online retailers while its own product range includes Good Karma (eco) brands.

“Recycling is very much part and parcel of what we do and having products which are recyclable as well,” Martin says. “We are increasingly feeding more recycled content into our product range.”

“Our aim is to become a climate neutral business worldwide by 2025, that’s something we have brought forward by five years and we are making rapid progress towards our goal.”

Success is, in many ways, down to its enthusiastic and driven staff, who share a passion for the company, its work and values.

It doesn’t matter how long members of the team have been at the company. They all speak with boundless energy and enthusiasm about their jobs and the business.

Naturally, relative newcomers are brimming with ideas. Andy Metcalfe has worked at Cedo for three years and controls the preventative maintenance on the different Cedo product lines machinery.

He also leads Cedo’s energy savings team, looking at ways it can make more energy efficient processes – there are plans to make more use of rain water, for example.

But there are also many experienced staff, who continue to drive the company forward. Executive assistant Diane Roe has worked there since 1989.

“There are plenty of people who have worked here for even longer than me, which is living proof of what it is like at Cedo,” she says.

“If you treat employees well, they will want to carry on working with you. It has certainly been the case for me, and although it’s now over three decades, the time has really flown by and I’ve enjoyed it all the way!”

Tracey Whittall, who manages at the site where Cedo packages clingfilm for major supermarkets, has also worked at the company for 34 years and speaks with passion in regards to the company’s environmental work.

“Even the packaging we use for the clingfilm is made from 100 per cent recycled paper and cardboard,” she says. “We’ve recently made a major changeover from PVC film to PE (polythene) film for our clingfilm products, which is more environmentally friendly, and easier to recycle. PE film is also thinner, so uses less plastic and all our supermarket customers are happy we’ve made this switch.”

There’s also Stuart Devere, Materials Processing Manager (UK), who has worked at Cedo for 35 years. He deals with all the recycled materials using post-consumer household waste plastic pellets from Cedo’s recycling plant in Geleen.

“We manufacture all our collection sacks and develop new plastic bags for our customers here, such as swing-tie handle sacks, bin liners, rubble sacks, garden sacks.

“And now 90 per cent of our products are 100 per cent recycled. We’re always innovating and finding ways to increase post-consumer household waste into our sacks and also we focus on weight reduction of our products. It has always been a friendly company,” he adds. “Everybody helps everybody.”

A walk around the factory provides fascinating insight into the journey of, for example, a bin bag from just recycled pellets to becoming an every day item we use every day.

It’s all completed with impressive efficiency under the watchful eye of Mariusz Rucinski, site director and leader of operations for Cedo UK.

He is responsible for ensuring the smooth running of all production and supply-chain processes

“Engineering is my background, but of course it is not all about the machines,” he says. “The team you build around you is incredibly important, and one of the best things about Cedo is the professional ethos."

“It starts with respect and treating others as you would like to be treated. This is a philosophy that you see in action at all levels of the company structure. It is important on a human level, but also makes the business run better. The more we treat each other with respect, the more we communicate, and this cooperation across the company is the best way to deliver results."

Those results include their new climate target and Martin said: “We have have three main areas we focus on.

“The first is the planet. How do we offset stewardship of what we do to help reduce impact on the environment? Secondly, how do we bring products to market, packaging that is more environmentally friendly? “And also how do we improve the health and well being of our staff? What can we do to increase diversity, inclusion and equality and our reach to communities as well?”

Their big targets will need dedicated staff and it’s clear the team at Telford share the vision and are determined to make 2025 happen.

Ten facts about Cedo

1. Cedo, based in Telford, UK, is one of Europe’s largest manufacturers of private label household consumable products, making millions of bin bags containing 100% recycled plastic each year

2. The company employs over 2,000 people globally, 300 are based here in Telford

3. Cedo manufactures and supplies refuse sacks and bin bags containing recycled plastic packaging waste, as well as food storage products to UK and European supermarkets

4. You can also shop Cedo’s own brands: Paclan, Polylina and eco-label Good Karma.

5. Cedo is an international and diverse business, with offices and factories in the UK, France, Poland, Germany, Holland and Vietnam.

6. For 20 years, Cedo has owned and operated Europe’s largest mixed plastic film recycling centre in Holland. This recycled material is used solely in the manufacture of Cedo products.

7. The company started out in 1965, as the 'Poly-Lina company’

8. Cedo has many long-served employees and regularly celebrates 10, 15 and 20 year anniversaries

9. Cedo in Telford is powered by 100% green energy.

10. Cedo’s core sustainability ambition is to achieve climate neutrality across its business by 2025.