4 Case Studies how SOL Baltics Handles Waste with Longopac
"In the SOL Baltics offices, we sort garbage and use the innovative Longopac waste handling system from Sweden, but we have also used the Longopac plastic bag for other purposes," shares his experience Rinel Pius, CEO of SOL Baltics.
"Perhaps we would not have come up with a new idea if Maurizio Zorrone, a representative of the Longopac factory, Paxxo, had not talked about Longopac as packaging, not as a garbage bag. After all, Longopac bag has a permit to contact with food, and so we have packed, for example, fruits in Longopac bag to bring them conveniently with you. It has also happened that we have used a Longopac plastic bag as a package for transporting clean or dirty clothes to our SOL Laundries,” Rinel gives interesting examples of the scope of Longopac usage.
"There doesn't have to be a separate solution for dirty clothes in our house - you just go to our trash bin, look at the bottom of the bag and if there is no other waste, throw clothes in, close the bag, separate the necessary part of the bag with a cable tie and the laundry bag is ready!" encourages Rinel other companies to use flexible Longopac system creatively.
SOL has used Longopac in even more unique places. Namely, the Longopac bag is suitable for transporting chemical bottles to a client's place to perform a cleaning test. Longopac is a good way to insulate bottles and you do not have the risk of leaking or smelling liquid in your car.
Next, Rinel Pius tells three exciting stories about how SOL and Longopac help reduce the CO2 footprint of three Estonian companies by using the innovative waste handling system.
Modern "garbage islands" of the Financial Centre
3-4 years ago, an international financial centre with about 500 places of work was being completed in Tallinn. Our task at SOL was to provide maintenance cleaning to the centre. Arriving to discuss the concept and cooperation plans, it turned out that the centre had already ordered a paper basket under each desk - a total of about 500 baskets!
Of course, we had a better and more environmentally friendly plan ready! Our offer was that no waste bins would be placed under the worktables, but so-called central "waste islands" would be made in the corridors.
As the premises of the financial centre are located on four floors, we proposed that a special island for each floor will be created, considering the style of the company. Our client's management liked the brave idea very much, and so we installed the Longopac garbage system inside the design furniture as a special solution.
There were several arguments in favour of the Longopac system:
- The special solution suited with the design of the client's premises.
- "Garbage islands" did not simply collect mixed waste, but different waste was sorted.
- Employees were "forced" to move and take breaks to take the waste to the central bins.
The work revealed further benefits:
- The cost of the garbage bag was reduced several times! The paper baskets are never completely filled with garbage, so the half-empty garbage bag itself generates a lot of waste. With the Longopac system you use the bag exactly as much as you need to pack the waste at that moment, so you don't have to throw away half-empty garbage bags. It is also environmentally friendly!
- Save time when changing garbage bags! There is a big difference between changing 500 garbage bags daily or, in the case of Longopac, putting a new bag into the system after 3-4 months. The working hours of the cleaning employee could be redirected to more useful activities. On average it takes about 20 seconds to deal with each garbage bin. If the cleaner had to deal with 500 bins every day, it would have taken more than two hours a day. In comparison, it takes about 4 minutes to deal with the "waste island".
New office building without exact places of work
An office building was built in Tallinn, where, as a new solution, employees do not have a permanent workplace and drawers on their desks for storing personal belongings. Only a monitor is placed on each desk where the employee can connect his computer when he arrives in the morning.
The rooms in the building are different - there are quiet rooms where it is forbidden to talk to each other or on the phone, as well as rooms for socialization. There is also a kitchen with a dining area on each floor.
The waste management solution we offered provided that the waste bins would only be in the kitchen and corridors. The waste bins would be created as a special solution and integrated into the customer's furniture.
Since the Longopac system is available in different sizes, we were able to use both medium and small Longopac frames in a special furniture solution. Today, an innovative and environmentally friendly Longopac solution has been working on the site for many years and all users are satisfied.
As a worthwhile experience, we learned how important it is to agree on every little detail with the client in advance. For example, when the kitchen furniture was ready, we discovered that the manufacturer had installed the Longopac cabinet under the sink. Yes, usually the waste bin is located under the sink, but the effectiveness of Longopac does not stand out in such solution. There is too little space under the sink, only 40x40 cm for Longopac. The best solution is to create a separate cupboard for Longopac, for example next to a sink, where the garbage bag can fall freely for a meter.
Mistakes are worth the experience!
I like Maurizio's, a trainer at the Paxxo factory, comment on Longopac: "Longopac is a Ferrari, but it is known that a Ferrari is not suitable for driving on all roads."
The idea of the previous sentence is that there is no point in forcing an innovative solution everywhere. Namely, we participated in a cleaning procurement, where also the waste solution was asked. We were innovative and came "out of the box" and did not offer standard black garbage bags into existing bins but suggested the Longopac solution to be integrated into the customer's furniture.
The customer agreed with the idea and the wooden cabinets as a special solution were ordered. However, it happened that we did not win this cleaning contract, and when we happened to visit the site, we talked about later, we discovered that the winning cleaning company used these cabinets and Longopac frames to attach ordinary black garbage bags with clothespins and tape.
We learned that when we sell an innovative solution, its efficiency is primarily related to the common goal and cooperation between the customer and the service provider. If there is no unity, innovation can become a very expensive and inconvenient solution.
Garbage is sorted at the Estonian Design Night Festival
In September 2020, the Design Night festival's management team turned to SOL to support the event with environmentally friendly waste handling solution. Design Night festival is focused on needs-based design - products and services that are functional and protect our health and help save valuable time. Read about the Design Night Festival HERE
In cooperation with Puhastusimport, we supported the Design Night festival and installed environmentally friendly Longopac waste handling systems in the festival area. We provided waste sorting stations with different colored bags and equipped them with explanatory labels. Visitors could get acquainted with the new Longopac waste handling solution and learn how to conveniently reduce the CO2 footprint by sorting waste.
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