Finalists announced for 2006 Awards for Excellence

More than 170 entries were received for the Awards which span the local authority, waste management, retail and commercial sectors recognising the best in recycling and sustainable approaches to managing waste.

There are three finalists for each of the nine categories of the Awards.

Run by letsrecycle.com, the awards aim to recognise innovation, dedication and success in recycling and sustainable waste management.

The finalists are (in alphabetical order):

Retail recycling champion
sponsored by Severnside.

• Argos for increasing recycling and reducing the landfilling of waste at its distribution centre at Bridgwater, Somerset;
• MITIE with the Brent Cross shopping centre, London
  for raising recycling rates at the centre and tackling a wide range of materials;
• Prosper De Mulder (PDM Group) for the development of a retail waste recycling service for the food retail sector

Commercial recycling champion
sponsored by Valpak.

• Peter Beagley, centre manager for Capital Shopping Centres' Braehead centre, Glasgow for improving the performance of all the group's centres;
• Philip Colchester, managing director, Breckland Print, for reducing environmental impacts with higher recycling and waste minimisation;
• Chris Shoel, and the Green Team at Coca-Cola, Milton Keynes for substantially increasing recycling and waste minimisation at the site.

Commercial waste management initiative
sponsored by Shanks

• DENSO Manufacturing UK for reaching a zero waste to landfill rate at its Telford site with 95% recycling;
• Midland Mainline for recycling 50% of waste from trains and implementing a recycling education campaign;
• MITIE Managed Services for overcoming barriers in work with the Department for Communities and Local Government to increasing food waste composting.

Innovation in design of a waste management facility
sponsored by ESTET

• Scottish Water Waste Services and Enviros Consulting for the Deerydkes composting and organics recycling facility in Cumbernauld;
• Shanks Waste Management for its Frog Island development including an MBT plant and a materials recycling facility.
• Veolia Environmental Services for the Integra South East energy recovery facility at Portsmouth.

Collection Crew of the year
sponsored by SITA UK

• Community West Recycling Partnership's Crew 2 of David Haggard, Mick Walford and Jack Caress in Doncaster.
• Serco, for the green waste collection crew of Kevin Woodhouse and Paul Mitchell working in Restormel borough, St Austell.
• Viridor, for the glass collection service provided by individual driver/operator Roger Woollard from the Peterborough depot.

Resource management industry and local authority partnership
sponsored by PaperChain

• The Bedfordshire Composting Partnership run by Bedfordshire county council and Growing Beds for creating a number of composting sites in the county;
• Bolton metropolitan borough council with the collection service Paperchase and mill UPM Shotton for collecting newspapers from schools, businesses and households including flats;
• Remade Kent and Medway supported by Kent county council and Medway council with MDJ Lightbrothers Ltd for a partnership to develop WEEE recycling involving markets, developing management skills and working with social enterprises and commercial sectors.

CA Site of the year
sponsored by Transform and W&S; Recycling

• City of Edinburgh council for the Seafield community recycling centre including redesign of the site and the promotion of reuse and recycling;
• Hull city council for the Burma Drive waste and recycling centre with sustainable design features and the design of the site;
• Leicestershire county council for the redevelopment of the Loughborough recycling and household waste site and increased recycling rates/.

Best local authority recycling initiative
sponsored by Abitibi-Consolidated Recycling Europe

• Lancaster city council, for its partnership work with Furniture Matters to replace the bulky collections system with a scheme promoting recycling and reuse.
• Preston city council for a trial and ongoing food collection scheme in the Deepdale area of Preston working with Lancashire county council, Lancashire environmental fund and SITA UK.
• Rhondda Cynon Taf county borough council for a concerted and comprehensive publicity campaign to increase recycling performance in the borough.

Local Authority Recycling Champion
sponsored by recycling.co.uk

• Paul Coates, recycling and education officer at Melton borough council, for his enthusiasm, passion and ability in pushing forward with alternative weekly collections and increasing recycling in the borough;
• Mark Shelton, waste policy manager for Cambridgeshire county council, for his central role in driving up recycling rates in the county;
• Barbara Webster, community waste liaison officer, Redcar and Cleveland borough council, for her unwavering enthusiasm in engaging with the public to encourage recycling.

” Congratulations go to those who have been shortlisted as finalists.“
– Steve Eminton, letsrecycle.com
Jeff Cooper, senior vice-president of the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management and policy manager with the Environment Agency, chaired the judging panel. Mr Cooper said: “The judges were extremely impressed with the high standard and the variety of entries to this year's awards. This reflects extremely well on the level of work going on across the UK to improve recycling and waste management practice.”

Steve Eminton, editor of letsrecycle.com, said: “It was great to see an increased number of entries with strong representation not only from local authorities, but also from the commercial sector where more and more businesses are getting to grips with waste issues.

“On the local authority side, we saw some examples of excellent campaigns and marketing work as well as clever initiatives with kerbside collections of food waste and green waste featuring. Even more submissions for the civic amenity sites category were seen this year as councils recognised the importance of these in terms of sustainable waste management and public access.

“Congratulations go to those who have been shortlisted as finalists and I would also like to thank and praise all those who submitted excellent entries and were not shortlisted this year,” Mr Eminton added.

Enquiries about the awards can be made to Sophie Gibson on: 020 7633 4500 and to purchase Awards tickets, email sophie@letsrecycle.com.