Omnia group company BME has been recognised by the Chemical and Allied Industries’ Association (CAIA) for its contribution to a cleaner environment – winning the CAIA Responsible Care® initiative of the year award, in the company projects: Category A segment, during an online award ceremony last week.

The award was for BME’s incorporation of used oil as a base product for its emulsion explosives, removing the risk that this oil could contaminate water or soil. According to BME Managing Director (SADC) Ralf Hennecke, the initiative is part of the company’s ongoing environmental, social and governance (ESG) commitment.

“On the environmental side, our treatment and disposal of used oil in this way reduces risk and improves regulatory compliance,” said Hennecke. “The positive social impact is through our engagement of small independent enterprises to collect the used oil.”

He added that the used oil initiative also included a strong governance aspect, by meeting stakeholder requirements in terms of responsible waste management systems.

Ramesh Dhoorgapersadh, BME’s General Manager for Safety, Health, Environment and Quality (SHEQ), said the initiative reflected the company’s close collaboration with customers – where used oil from large mining customers was also collected and utilized for re-purposing and responsible disposal through the blasting process. These partnerships have been initiated in Africa and are being rolled out to BME’s global network of operations.

Originally posted in African Mining Magazine