The eighth annual awards, which are organised by letsrecycle.com, are the leading celebration of achievements in the waste management and recycling sector, honouring efforts from the private, public and third sectors.
This years Awards for Excellence are taking place on May 12 2011 at the newly refurbished Savoy Hotel in central London, with the Awards themselves being preceded by a champagne reception and a three course meal.
Presented by journalist and broadcaster Krishnan Guru-Murthy, the daytime event features 10 award categories acknowledging efforts across waste management and recycling.
Among the Awards categories are High Street Recycling Champion, which aims to acknowledge greater recycling or improved sustainability in the retail sector. Elsewhere, the Innovation in Design of a Waste Management Facility rewards design and operation of new plants and the Best Community Recycling Initiative is aimed at honouring the work of the third sector and social enterprises.
Steve Eminton, editor at letsrecycle.com, said: The Awards for Excellence 2011 are a real opportunity to praise the efforts of the public, private and third sectors over the past 12 months.
I look forward to some innovative ideas and initiatives in the entries, especially in the newly added category of Recycling Business of the Year. Weve already had a great level of interest from across the waste and recycling sector, so I would urge people to submit their entries as soon as possible.
The Awards for Excellence 2011 are supported by the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), Environment Agency, the Environmental Services Association (ESA) and the National Association of Waste Disposal Officers (NAWDO).
Judging
Entries will be judged by a panel drawn from across the waste and recycling sector, led by chair Jeff Cooper, the president of the International Solid Waste Association.
Also, featured on the panel is the Awards for Excellence 2010 Local Authority Recycling Champion, Tim Read. Mr Read, recycling officer at Castle Point borough council, was received his award in recognition for his work in driving the south Essex local authoritys waste and recycling initiatives.
Mr Read oversaw the introduction of the Pink Sacks recycling scheme in Castle Point and has helped steer the local authoritys recycling rate to over 40%.
Speaking to letsrecycle.com today (March 14) about progress on the scheme since last years accolade, Mr Read said: We have moved on quite a lot since introducing the Sacks scheme.
We are probably increasing our efforts on another 5% recycling rate on where we were, so we should be over 40%.
He is now gearing up for the roll-out food waste collections and fortnightly residual waste collections from June 2011, with a view to achieving a 50-60% recycling rate.
Commenting on the 2011 Awards for Excellence, Mr Read said: It will be really interesting to see what people have been up to and how all the potential for cuts and all the stuff around that.
I know some of the main cuts happened before [the spending review] but I think it will be interesting to see what innovation there has been. At the moment we are trying to come up with as many innovative ways [as possible] of doing lots without any money and hopefully there will be some interesting applications involving that.
Also on the judging panel are: Steve Eminton; Craig Anderson, chief executive of the Furniture Reuse Network; Diana Caldwell, marketing and communications manager for Alupro; Matthew Farrow, director of policy at the ESA; Simon Marsden, president of the Recycling Association; Emily Nichols, technical manager at Association for Organics Recycling.
For more information on the Awards for Excellence in Waste Management and Recycling 2011please visit the dedicated website here.
Subscribe for free