AVR-SAFEWAY is a licensed hazardous waste processing company situated in its purpose-built facility in Fermoy, Co Cork. Pat O'Flynn formed Safeway in 1997, and in November 2001 the company signed a 50:50 joint venture with leading Dutch waste-management company AVR, and became AVR-Safeway. The company enjoyed 100 per cent growth for the following number of years.
O'Flynn says he is a firm believer that recovery options need to be more economically favourable compared to disposal options in order to ensure their sustainability. He set out to demonstrate to the market that some of the waste that they had labelled for incineration (disposal) was suitable for recovery (reuse or used as a fuel) options. In 2001, 80 per cent of the waste managed via AVR-Safeway Ltd was incinerated. In 2007, 80 per cent of the waste managed via AVR-Safeway was recovered.
AVR-Safeway now manages approximately 65,000 tonnes of Irish hazardous waste. This represents approximately 60 per cent of the solvent-based waste market. There are currently 35 people directly employed with AVR-Safeway, and the company indirectly provides 70 per cent of the work for South Coast Transport which employs about 60 employees.
Product/Service:
It provides sustainable safe solutions for hazardous waste disposal/recovery. AVR-Safeway operates Ireland's largest fuel-blending plant and supplies secondary liquid fuel (SFL) to cement kiln and power stations as an alternative to fossil fuel. The company provides the first three sections of the waste-management chain, and utilises the best environmental/commercial facility for the final disposal/recovery.
Customer:
AVR-Safeway operates a nationwide service and has in excess of 200 customers. Its customers come from all areas of industry which include pharmaceutical, chemical, food and beverage, construction, local authorities, laboratories, schools and universities, electronic and manufacturing etc. Notwithstanding the broad customer base, the majority of Irish hazardous waste is produced by the pharmaceutical industry. AVR-Safeway's top 10 customers are Pfizer, Novartis, Corden Pharma, Schwarz Pharma Eli Lilly, Abbott, Millipore, Dee Environmental, Conoco Philips and Bristol-Myers Squibb.
What vision prompted you to start up in business?
There were no adequate facilities available in Ireland to serve the pharmaceutical industry. The chemical waste they produced was predominately catered for by unregulated brokers. The EPA was newly-formed and the 1996 Waste Management Act was the basis for making a difference. I was confident that if we produced a "state of the art" facility licensed by the EPA we should be able to bring the industry to dealing with indigenous waste-management facilities.
Are there any interesting or unusual circumstances surrounding the inception of the company or its evolution?
At inception I had numerous discussions with the Department of the Environment about my plans and Safeway was successful with a grant application in 1998/1999. It was a 40 per cent grant to support the building of an environmentally-sustainable facility for hazardous waste management
Express the biggest challenge you see your industry facing?
Because AVR-Safeway's biggest customers are the pharmaceutical industry, the biggest challenge I see facing is keeping the pharmaceutical companies here in Ireland. Most of these multi-nationals have already seen that they can produce the same standard in developing countries. Our higher energy and labour costs are a big challenge to us.
