Macroom e bringing smiles to the faces of business owners

AN innovative Macroom based-scheme is promising to bring smiles to the faces of Cork business owners by potentially saving them thousands of euros each year.

A Cork County Council initiative based at the Macroom E Centre, the SMILE Resource Exchange project is waste prevention initiative based on the simple ethos that ‘one company’s waste is another ones treasure.’

At the core of the project is need to raise awareness of the economic and environmental benefits of reusing everyday items and materials that might otherwise be consigned to a skip.

A publicly funded project, SMILE (Saving Money Though Industry Links and Exchanges), provides a platform that allows businesses to identify how this exchange of recyclable items can be of huge mutual benefit to one another.

A spokesperson for the SMILE said the project works on the principal of “industrial symbiosis”.

“This is described as the sharing of services, utility and by-product resources among industries in order to add value, reduce costs and improve the environment,” said the spokesperson.

In layman’s terms, it operates like an industrial ‘swap shop’, allowing SMILE consultants to identify how what might be considered waste for one business could be used as raw material for another.

“Our economy has a basic linear structure whereby we put products which are not made to last into the ground as landfill. This is incredibly wasteful and hugely detrimental to the environment,” said the spokesperson.

With this in mind the SMILE team have adopted the principal of industrial symbiosis, through identifying organisations with redundant resources from their database and matching them with others that could benefit from those.

These can range from whole telephone systems and storage tanks to smaller items such fluorescent light fittings and even lever arch files.

For example Cork based Ocon Chemicals donated more than 100 pieces of office furniture to the Northside Business Initiative, saving more than €10,000 worth of equipment from being sent to landfill.

“This is just one instance of how companies that engage with SMILE can benefit from reduced costs through access to free or low cost materials, less waste, improved competitiveness and the opportunity to identify new business opportunities and create jobs,” said the spokesperson.

Businesses of all sizes and from all sectors can participate in the SMILE initiative, which also offers advice, support and guidance to participants on a wide range of issues including resource efficiency, legislation and waste management.

To find out more about the initiative and to register your interest in joining the SMILE database visit www.smileexchange.ie.