That is the message from Dan Cooke, director of external affairs for Viridor, who has managed environmental communications for the waste management and recycling company for the past 16 years.
“If we want high levels of recycling it is important to make it easy, convenient, but also to communicate effectively to encourage people to put the right stuff in the right bin and to tell the world what we do and why it is important”, he says.
Hailing from Gloucestershire, Mr Cooke was initiated into the environmental services sector at an early age when he took a summer job as a street sweeper. He completed a degree in Communications at Coventry University and soon got a job as environmental promotions officer for Coventry city council, where he gained valuable experience in promoting recycling and cleansing services and running environmental education and awareness campaigns.
Viridor
After Coventry Mr Cooke worked for the Tidy Britain Group, before joining Taunton-based Viridor, in 1999, when the company went by the name of Haul Waste.
“One of my first jobs at Haul Waste was to change the company’s corporate identity to Viridor”, Mr Cooke explains. “It was a very different company back then.”
Mr Cooke says that while some of Viridor’s core values have remained the same over this period, its turnover has jumped from £50 million to £800 million, while the number of employees has rocketed from around 400 to 3,000.
“Nowadays we are very focused on recycling and resources and also energy, with a landfill wind-down and aftercare programme as the sector as a whole moves away from that route”, he explains.
Last year, Mr Cooke was promoted to Viridor’s ten-strong executive management team, where he sits alongside fellow directors and Viridor chief executive Ian McAuley. The team sets the company direction and makes strategic decisions.
“Every day for me is different”, says Mr Cooke of his role, which involves extensive travel across the UK and encompasses communications “in the broadest sense”, from PR to political engagement, internal communications and customer relations.
“It is my responsibility to ensure consistency around what the company wants to communicate. For instance the ink has just dried on our sustainability report and this afternoon I am going to see Alan Johnson talking about the yes campaign on the EU and what we can do to influence it.”
Quality
When asked what the big issues in recycling are at the moment, Mr Cooke says that demand for recycling services from local authorities and businesses is healthy but says that quality of recyclate is a big issue alongside the volatility of markets for secondary recovered materials. He attributes the situation to the economic slowdown, challenges in China and fluctuating oil prices.
“Quality along with the volatility in the market at the moment are almost the be all and end all in recycling at the moment”.
He continues: “It is one hell of a challenge. But we have strong relationships with customers through our Viridor Resource Management arm and we are lucky to have [VRM managing director] Herman van der Meij who is very plugged into the markets which helps. But it is not easy and it’s still an industry which is in its relatively early stages and a lot of consolidation is needed and effective regulation.”
2020 targets
Another issue on Mr Cooke’s radar is the 2020 recycling targets and whether the UK will reach 50%. He believes this is “touch and go”, especially given the price of commodities, public spending cuts and availability of infrastructure. And, he says it was important for local authorities to not take their foot off the pedal when it came to communicating effectively about their services.
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“We have seen a trend in the last few years where local authorities are withdrawing resources from communications when all best practice shows that to drive recycling, we have to effectively, clearly and consistently encourage higher participation levels.
“People want to recycle and they just need to be nudged to do their bit and we can get to those targets. It is important that local authorities see communications as an essential part of the service, not an add on.”
When asked about Viridor’s priorities over the coming year, Mr Cooke points to how much the company has recently achieved over the last year, by bringing five new energy recovery plants online and two new recycling plants. Only last week, the company unveiled a £25 million glass recycling plant in North Lanarkshire (see letsrecycle.com story).
“Hopefully it is more of the same. We have got more recycling technology on its way and we are very focused on what our customers want so we are talking to local authorities about how to meet their targets in these challenging times, talking to our business customers about how we can customise the services to encourage more recycling and recovery.”
Interests
Despite having so much on his plate, Mr Cooke makes sure he maintains a healthy work-life balance and counts various outdoor pursuits, music, singing and Aston Villa FC among his interests.
He adds: “I have traditionally played quite a lot of sport and my first love is surfing. I had an extremely proud moment this summer when my daughter and I caught our first wave together in Cornwall.
“In the summer you can get to good surfing beaches within an hour of work so I can get there before sun down.”
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