As Coventry's largest social landlord and part of the larger WM Housing Group, Whitefriars Housing is actively working towards waste minimisation to responsibly reduce the organisation's impact on the wider environment. Whitefriars Housing destroys all of its waste paper products via a secure shredding process with Russell Richardson. Representing approximately 14.5 tonnes of paper per year, Russell Richardson will undertake a regular onsite confidential shredding service for 10 sites across Coventry.
All the paper collected by Russell Richardson will be destroyed to 16mm and smaller, prior to leaving Whitefriars' premises and recycled into photocopier paper or tissue products. Russell Richardson's secure destruction process thereby diverts Whitefriars' waste paper from the normal commercial waste stream and away from landfill.
Phil Felgate, group facilities services manager at WM Housing Group, comments: "It is very important to us that we work with the right partners to ensure that we are able to fulfil our waste reduction commitments and that of the waste hierarchy. The shredding and recycling services being implemented by Russell Richardson are of a high calibre in terms of security and environmental credentials.
"Furthermore, as an independent shredding supplier, Russell Richardson is extremely customer focussed with a completely flexible approach to service delivery. All our requests are dealt with immediately and personally, which is one of the main reasons why we will be looking to extend the service to cover the rest of WM Housing Group over the coming months."
Together with the secure shredding service, Russell Richardson will also remove any cardboard and plastic items from all of Whitefriars' sites and recycle them. A founding member of the National Association for Information Destruction (NAID) Europe, The Shredding Alliance and The Security Alliance, Russell Richardson takes security seriously and adheres to strict standards set out in BS EN15713:2009, the European standard for the destruction of confidential information and operates to ISO9001:2008.
Commenting on the appointment, Jonathan Richardson, managing director at Russell Richardson, said: "It is refreshing to work alongside an organisation like Whitefriars Housing that treats its waste paper stream with such reverence by utilising a secure shredding process to destroy and recycle it in its entirety."
Established in 2000, Whitefriars Housing was the result of a positive tenant vote which led to what was then the largest single housing stock transfer in the country. More than 22,000 homes owned by Coventry City Council were passed on to the not-for-profit housing association, making Whitefriars Housing the city's largest social landlord. Whitefriars Housing is now part of WM Housing Group along with Optima Community Housing, Nexus Housing, Kemble Housing and Herefordshire Supported Housing for Young People Project (SHYPP).