KEIGHLEY-based Keybury Fire and Security has been crowned a 'plastic free business champion'.

The company is among the first in its sector to be awarded the accolade, by Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) – a Cornwall-based charity which is tackling plastic pollution globally.

The award is in recognition of Keybury’s long-term commitment to eliminate single-use plastics and an ongoing pledge to help protect and enhance the environment.

As part of its efforts, the firm has been supporting the Plastic Free Bingley campaign and more-recently new groups in East Morton and Oakworth.

Christine Bell, from Keybury, who represents the company as a volunteer 'recycling champion', said: "We believe we’re the first in our industry to achieve the award – I don’t think there are any other security or fire protection businesses yet listed as plastic free. We’re also one of the first businesses in Keighley to achieve the status.

"We’ve evaluated single-use plastic across the company and ditched as much as we could.

"We don’t have a water dispenser – preferring good old Yorkshire tap water! We also have ‘proper’ cups and cutlery in the staff kitchen, as well as swapping to glass milk bottles delivered by our local milkman.

"In addition, all staff have been encouraged to use reusable drinks containers, rather than single-use plastic bottles. We’ve switched from plastic bags to reusable boxes for our stock and we’ve contacted all our suppliers and asked them to reduce the packaging for deliveries wherever possible."

She added that other measures adopted by the company included switching to e-subscriptions, to avoid receiving plastic-wrapped catalogues, and a drive to become a paperless office.

"We now recycle a huge amount of our waste," said Christine.

"Furthermore, we recycle all our waste electronic equipment – even down to replacement batteries on our customers’ intruder and fire alarm systems.

"We plan our engineers’ work by area, which cuts down on unnecessary driving and reduces the amount of fuel used.

"We’ve also now started to introduce hybrid and fully-electric vehicles into our company car fleet, with charging points at our head office in Worth Enterprise Park – which was itself fitted with environmentally-friendly solar panels when we first moved there in 2014.

"Wherever possible we use local suppliers in a bid to continually reduce our carbon footprint.

"We have been doing our bit for the environment for many years and we’re adding new eco-friendly measures all the time."