It is just over six months ago since we announced that we had recruited three new apprentices. That was part of our vision for the future in which we pledged to take on and coach youngsters to ensure they gained the crucial engineering skills they would require to enjoy a successful career within our modern and innovative company.

Next week a very well established and highly respected pet crematorium in Lincolnshire, UK, will be taking delivery of a brand new high-specification Surefire IEB 16 pet cremator from Matthews Environmental Solutions. The installation is set to become a key element within their modernisation programme and will represent a significant moment as part of the crematorium’s future plans and ambitions.

Do you recall (and it’s not too long ago) when companies and authorities too for that matter, simply used to burn much of their waste to dispose of it? Remember all those plumes of toxic smoke that used to belch into the atmosphere?

Thanks to the enormous advances in incinerator technology over recent years, it has now become recognised as the most environmentally responsible and economically efficient solution for the disposal of waste material. This is especially true when the need is to ensure that potentially hazardous waste is disposed of safely, efficiently and in a sound ecological manner.

Matthews Environmental Solutions Limited, part of the Matthews International Group, is acknowledged as one of the world’s leading incinerator technology specialists, with a range of globally acclaimed incinerator options that include leading brand of Surefire Incinerators, Animal Cremators and our NOVUS Human Cremators.

Disposing of animal carcasses, with the large amounts of fats and fluids involved, can pose major problems involving emissions, effluent, air pollution and residual waste. It is especially problematic if you need to handle a high quantity of carcasses over a very short period. When one of our overseas clients was faced with this particular dilemma they had no hesitation in calling on us to help them solve the problem.

Landfill has become a major problem, not just here in the UK, but all around the world. In industrialised nations especially, it is calculated that with suitable space becoming more and more at a premium, the time is rapidly approaching when landfill becomes, quite simply, no longer an option. Even in emerging countries the advance in more enlightened environmentally responsible policies has seen a vast reduction in the practice of simply burying waste. There has to be an alternative.

Two months ago, back in September, we changed our name from Todaysure Matthews Limited to Matthews Environmental Solutions Limited. In some respects this was in response to Todaysure’s merger with Matthews International, but more importantly everyone felt that our new name, far more accurately reflected our position as an international leader in environmentally sound waste disposal technology.

Josh Patterson, Tom Bailey and Charlie Hyde, the three newest apprentice engineers at Matthews Environmental Solutions, pulled on their hiking boots and took part in the SETA Training charity hike on Sunday 11th October. An event that raised the magnificent total of £1500 for this year’s nominated charity: When You Wish Upon a Star.

Although the concept of cremating the remains of pets has been around for well over twenty or thirty years, it is only over recent years that an industry has been developed to satisfy the needs of a growing number of people who wish to recover the ashes of their beloved pet.

There have been many reports over recent years of an imminent skills shortage facing British industry. This is the result of a reluctance by many firms to invest in training and apprenticeships for youngsters, as well as inadequate planning to replace today’s experienced artisans as retirement sees numbers gradually dwindling. At Todaysure Matthews however, our policy is to prepare for the future and as one of the UK’s leading incinerator manufacturers we have recruited three new engineering apprentices.

Last week we were delighted to welcome five representatives from a Kenyan Research Centre to our Hyde headquarters when they came to inspect the latest waste incinerator that we had manufactured for them.