Britain's first producer of totally green kitchens of recycled content, all the way from Ilkley West Yorkshire
Environment Times is raising money for the homeless by creating a 'virtual ecohouse'. Milestone Design is one of the donors. They write: "Our first faltering steps into eco design began in 2006 when our directors, Julian and Jan Richards, were sat at home treating themselves to the odd gin & tonic or two(ish). At some point of the evening one of them said, "Go on then ... we've been recycling for ages and I've never seen a thing in the shops that's made from the things we recycle.... what CAN we actually buy that's recycled?"
They struggled ...... the best thing they could come up with, at that time, was recycled toilet rolls from the supermarket.
A poor effort really, possibly down to their gin infused impaired mental state, but the following day the decision was made to try and source recycled materials in the U.K. to build kitchens and built-in furniture from. We wanted to help encourage people to recycle more and try to promote the message that we can use these materials efficiently, rather than just keep digging massive holes in the countryside to bury the problem, ruining our planet.
There began probably the hardest year that our business has so far faced and we, as a nation, still do not seem to embrace the use of recycled materials in this country as much as we should.
Cutting out all the positive thinking clichés that kept us going, whilst we felt like we were wading through mud, trying to navigate the eco apathy in our wonderful country, a year later, we had a smart new totally recycled content kitchen display sat in our showroom .... we believe it to be the first time it had ever been successfully attempted and carried out in a retail kitchen showroom ever !! AND we are very proud to say that everything in it was 'Made in Britain.'
We can do it when we try, it's hard work but we feel it's worth the effort!, We got loads of newspaper and magazine coverage and our 'Kitchens of Recycled Content' were off and running.
To build on the back of the first successful kitchen, it soon became obvious that more colour choices would be needed to widen appeal, so using the carcassing material to make cabs and doors, our Eco² and EcoSelect ranges were created to fill that need.
Eco² being the grown up kitchen featuring full customisation, soft close everything and an initial choice of 16 colours whilst EcoSelect, being still built on the same basic cabinet had less colour choices, no soft close and standard sizes only. As a result we were able to offer it at a lower cost, making Eco affordable to everybody.
Eco² cabinets are now the foundation block for every single kitchen that we install, and still have the best eco credentials of any timber board material in the industry (75% recycled timber, 25% FSC certified).
Our original 'Kitchens of Recycled Content' were fitted with doors made from our 100% recycled Yoghurt Pots material, and worktops from our 100% recycled content Coffee Cup material (100% recycled content made predominantly from recycled vending machine coffee cups), both totally recycled materials which behave very much like Corian, but are a lot more environmentally friendly. Both can be infinitely refurbished and refinished and are, once more totally recyclable at the end of their life in a kitchen.
These days, both our Yoghurt Pot and Coffee Cup materials tend to be used only for worktops, with doors being now being manufactured in our Glacier material (95% recycled content uPVC from the windows industry), which we introduced in 2019. Our Glacier material is also ideal for use in bathrooms, for cabinets and panels.
We also offer an extensive selection of hard wood timber doors, all from sustainable sources, which can be supplied natural (oiled) or finished in any colour using environmentally friendly, low V.O.C. paints.
We have further enhanced our eco offering with the introduction of a range of worktops, manufactured from a minimum 70% recycled glass content and available in six different colour options.
We continually seek new ways of incorporating recycled materials into our product range, whilst accepting zero compromise on the quality of our kitchens.
Whilst we may be a relatively small kitchen company, based in Ilkley, West Yorkshire, our Eco adventures have taken us to many cities across mainland Britain. We even installed one of our kitchens on Holy Island, off the coast of Northumbria. We can supply and install for both domestic and business projects, in fact we supply staff kitchens into major high street retailers all across the United Kingdom. Our materials can also be used for creating display units and shelving within the retail industry, so talk to us about your requirements.
For further information visit www.milestone.uk.net or contact us via email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or phone (01943 817153).
