Uni-Blinds® integral blinds manufacturer Morley Glass has been recognised by the Yorkshire business community for the achievements of its post-consumer IGU recycling initiative by being shortlisted in the Sustainability category of the Yorkshire Business of the Year Awards 2025.
Organised by one of the UK’s most popular and respected business news providers, BusinessDesk.com, the awards aim to celebrate the very best business successes from across the Yorkshire region. The thorough judging process aims to identify the companies that the judges believe are innovating, disrupting and thriving, and this has already involved a visit by members of the judging panel to the Morley Glass HQ and manufacturing facility near Leeds back in September.
This visit enabled the awards judges to see for themselves how Morley Glass is successfully reducing the amount of waste glass generated by the UK’s window and door industry needlessly going to landfill, and raising funds to support good causes across Yorkshire in the process.
The initiative was developed back in 2021 by Morley Glass in conjunction with Saint-Gobain Glass. It has already generated around 2,000 tonnes of cullet (crushed glass) from post-consumer IGUs collected from integral blind customers, who are able to divert their end-of-life glass away from the general waste skip into recycling.
The value of the cullet as a raw material for making new glass has enabled Morley Glass to create a fund to support charities, groups and individuals involved in environmental and social improvement projects. So far around 200 grants have been provided, for everything from primary school vegetable-growing projects to a community theatre company which is working to bring together refugees, asylum seekers and settled communities.
Ian Short, Managing Director of Morley Glass said: “It is fantastic to be shortlisted for the Business of the Year Awards and we are already looking forward to the awards ceremony in February. The calibre of the finalists across all categories is extremely high, reflecting the outstanding levels of entrepreneurship and creativity we are fortunate to have in our region, so it is an honour to be shortlisted.”
The sustainability benefits that post-consumer IGU recycling delivers versus landfill disposal are far-reaching. To date, this volume of cullet has saved over 2,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions from the glass manufacturing process and over 1,100 ‘energy years’ – that is the amount of energy a typical home would use in a year. It has also saved the need for more than 2,600 tonnes of sand, the main virgin raw material used for glass production.
In addition to the recycling scheme for IGUs, Morley Glass also seeks to minimise waste by ensuring products are reused wherever possible. It diverts its empty steel drums, used by its sealant supplier, away from recycling into re-use through a partnership with a waste management specialist.
And the thousands of wooden boxes used by its integral blinds partner Pellini S.p.A. to supply ScreenLine® products every year are donated to good causes. Local schools use them for art and design projects, and they are also an essential raw material for The PIECES Project, an inspirational initiative which is working to help young people to unlock their entrepreneurial and creative potential.
The Yorkshire Business of the Year Awards winners will be announced at a high-profile black tie awards evening in Leeds on 20th February 2025.
