Awards for Excellence entry deadline nears

Potential entrants have until Tuesday September 8 to submit entries for the prestigious awards, which are organised by letsrecycle.com and supported by Defra and the Environment Agency, as well as wide range of other supporters and sponsors.

The Awards seek to recognise achievements in moving towards sustainable waste management and offer a range of categories which offer recognition for individuals as well as businesses and organisations.

In particular entries are being sought to complete the list of nominees in the High Street Recycling Champion and Commercial Recycling Champion categories, but entries can still be submitted in all nine categories right up until next Tuesday's deadline..

The full list of categories are: High Street Recycling Champion, sponsored by Severnside Recycling; Commercial Recycling Champion, sponsored by Valpak; Waste Management Initiative in the Commercial and Public Sector, sponsored by Shanks Waste Solutions; Collection Crew of the Year, sponsored by SITA UK; CA Site of the Year, sponsored by Repic Ltd; The Best Local Authority Recycling Initiative, sponsored by Abitibibowater Recycling Europe; Local Authority Recycling Champion, sponsored by UPM Kymmene; Innovation in Design of a Waste Management Facility, sponsored by ESTET; and, the Best Community Recycling Initiative.

Steve Eminton, editor of letsrecycle.com, said: “The Awards were a huge success last year and it is a chance for the sector to reward itself for all the good work it does over the year. Over the six years the Awards have been running we have seen a range of fantastic initiatives and I am sure this will continue for 2009.”

Host

In the run-up to this year's big event, TV personality Dermot Murnaghan has been named as the host of the prestigious ceremony.

Mr Murnaghan is best known for his work as a broadcast journalist for ITN, the BBC and Sky News and has also presented popular quiz show 'Eggheads' since 2003.

This year the Awards are being presented at the luxurious Landmark Hotel, in London, close to Regent's Park. Guests at the event are set to enjoy a champagne reception and a three course lunch, followed by the Awards ceremony itself.

Last year's event saw winners including: Dreams, Homebase and Tubelines from the commercial sector, whilst outstanding local authorities taking home awards included the Three Rivers district council, Hampshire county council, and Julie Rankine of the Scottish Borders council.

This year the judging panel is being chaired by recycling expert, Barbara Herridge of the North London Waste Authority and the team includes Jeff Cooper, of the International Solid Waste Association, Sam Corp, head of regulation at the Environmental Services Association, Kamila Horak UK and Ireland commercial manager at Geodis, Paul Smith, chief executive of the Furniture Re-use Network, David Symmers, chief executive at The Recycling Association, Steve Burdis, chairman of the National Association of
Waste Disposal Officers and Mr Eminton.

For more information or to enter the Awards for Excellence please visit the letsrecycle.com Awards website at https://www.letsrecycle.com/awards/index.html or contact Louisa Tribe on 020 7633 4503.