BCF Coatings Care Report Finds Industry Gains on Sustainability

The BCF Coatings Care program was established to monitor and drive improvement in the health and welfare of employees, the safe operation of processes, and sustainable practices across the coatings sector. Running since 1996, it is a voluntary program which benchmarks BCF members’ environmental performance against 45 KPIs, allowing performance changes to be measured over the years. The scheme currently has over 40 UK coatings and printing ink manufacturing sites taking part.

The 2024 Coatings Care report demonstrates continued improvement in sustainability performance in the coatings sector across a range of measures. This year also saw the highest number of companies take part in the program since 2012.

Leading the performance improvements was positive data showing energy use falling by 12% compared to 2022. This result means that energy use per ton of production is lower than at any point prior to 2018.

For the constant sample of 22 companies taking part in all the Coatings Care surveys in each of the last five years, which therefore eliminates the effect of sample changes, the result was equally good. In 2023, energy use among those companies was 161 kWh per ton of production, down 9% compared to the previous year, 10% lower than in 2020, and the lowest recorded energy use figure since the survey began in 1996.

This year, for the first time, a majority of sites reported zero landfill waste from production, as 59% said that all waste was either incinerated or recycled. Looking at the method of disposal, recycling increased to 70% of all waste compared to just 17% in 1996, while landfill waste fell to just 1%. Accident rates are also at a record low and well below the rate of accidents reported for manufacturing industries in the latest UK Labour Force survey, as 87% of the sites surveyed by BCF for their accident statistics reported no injuries at all.

“This year’s results were particularly satisfactory,” said Tom Bowtell, CEO of the BCF. “Participation among members has increased to the highest levels since 2012. More importantly, though, we have seen record low levels of energy used per ton of production and big increases in the amount of waste being recycled and much less going to landfill. While we know there is much more to be done to continue to boost our performance, this year’s report shows welcome steps in the right direction and is a tribute to the work BCF members are putting into becoming a more sustainable sector.”