Recycling firm makes waste a winner

by Rebecca Burn-Callander - Thursday, 24th January 2008

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When it comes to green innovation in the UK, Remarkable takes the biscuit.
The Worcester-based stationary company recycles UK waste into UK-manufactured products for UK customers. The company’s seven production
systems process five tonnes of UK waste every day.

Ironic, is it not, that companies like Barclays and Deutsche Bank end up
buying Remarkable pencils made from their recycled plastic cups and
Remarkable pads made from their waste paper? While Rolls Royce forks out for
branded pencil cases made from recycled car tyres.

Founder and inventor, Edward Douglas Miller, started the company in 1996.
“In the nineties environmental concerns weren’t mainstream. No one talked
about it,” he says. “For the first five years we struggled with one product,
the Remarkable pencil. Now we manufacture a complete range of stationary.
Corporations and blue-chips use us to meet their environmental objectives by
buying branded products. We’re growing at 50 per cent year-on-year.”

As one of the pioneering companies in this sector, he’s is scathing about
copycat firms. “No-one else takes UK waste and manufactures it here,” he
says. “It’s closed-loop recycling. All of our products are environmental.
I’m not bolting a token green range onto a polluting system or green-washing
to please my shareholders.” Miller owns 100 per cent of the £4m-turnover
company. And he’s not getting out any time soon. “We’re launching a massive
new range this month,” he says. “So we’re on track to compete with the whole
stationary sector, not just the fringe green industry.” Keep your eyes
peeled for a Remarkable growth spurt.