Sowerby Bridge News

Trading Standards Investigate British Recycled Products

An Hebden Bridge firm specialising in recycled products was recently taken to task by West Yorkshire Trading Standards office, when doubts were raised over the validity of claims made by the company in advertising and marketing campaigns.

It was discovered that British Recycled Products, who operate from a renovated mill building in the centre of Hebden Bridge, laid claim to the processing and manufacture of an innovative range of recycled paint products. In advertising directed toward businesses and local authorities, the company stated:

“We take waste paint from local authority waste sites, re-process the paint (adding nothing but PH stabilisers and any consistency regulators which are already in paint), and the pots we sell come out at 90-95% recycled.”

However, Trading Standards quickly established that this was an entirely false claim, and that in reality, the company behind the manufacture of this ingenious and eco-friendly new product was Newlife Paints in West Sussex. British Recycled Products were subsequently forced to withdraw these false claims.

British Recycled Products and sister company Low Carbon Products are both run by Jason Elliott, a former travel photographer and creator of the 500 Faces of Hebden Bridge project. Lesley Jones, a local Lib-Dem Councillor, is understood to be an employee of the company.

In an interview with The Yorkshire Post in August 2010, the ‘polymath’ managing director Jason Elliott claimed that British Recycled Products: “produces about 5,000 litres [of paint] a week and expects to increase this to 20,000 by the end of this year.” Since the company has no manufacturing facility of its own, this appears to be yet another false claim, attempting to take credit and publicity from the pioneering work of Newlife Paints.