A furniture reproduction firm is saving thousands of pounds a year by going green.

Oakleaf Reproductions, of Ling Bob Mill, Main Street, Wilsden, is expected to save £7,000 a year, thanks to a waste-cutting programme.

Oakleaf, which was set up in 1969 and has a workforce of 16, makes simulated wood mouldings in Oakleaf Cellular Resin - possessing many of the characteristics of wood.

The firm, which is run by co-directors Roger and Jonathan Banister, was one of the first to join Keighley Business Forum's Waste Minimisation Programme in early 1996.

At that time the company was examining its skip waste and finding out the best way to receive raw materials.

It looked at having materials delivered in Intermediate Bulk Containers, which are returnable and re-usable, instead of 250 kilo drums which are not.

Last summer, Keighley Business Forum sponsored Matthew Darlington, of Leeds University, to look at more ways of reducing waste at the firm.

He was on the national STEP scheme - Shell Technology and Enterprise Programme - which places students into small firms and community groups to help them develop. He came up with ways of dealing in an environmental way with polyurethane dispenser flushing effluent. He worked out how up to 75 of the effluent could be recycled as cleaning fluid compared with the 40 to 50 per cent under the old system.

Roger Banister said today: "We now know what we have to do so we need to provide the plant to do it.''

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