Retailers triumph at DS Smith Recycling awards

The awards, which took place on September 19, are open to all of DS Smith Recyclings customers who have demonstrated environmental best practice through recycling schemes and supply chain processes.

Among the winners was Tesco, which won the award for Continuous Excellence in Recycling for its commitments to zero waste to landfill and Furniture Village which was named the Letsrecycle Champion as DS Smith Recycling believes it encompasses overall excellence in resource efficiency.

Commenting on the awards, Tim Price, national commercial manager at DS Smith Recycling, said: Each person, team, organisation mentioned tonight was selected because they have made a real difference in improving waste and recycling management systems. In their in individual way they have laid down a marker for best practice that others can learn from. Congratulations to all of them.

Mat Prosser, European commercial director at DS Smith Recycling, added: With increasing environmental awareness and legislation, more organisations are evaluating their processes and making efforts to ensure theyre sustainable. Its important that industry gives these organisations the recognition they deserve and to share best practice.

Winners

Split into two categories, the awards celebrate personal commitment to recycling and organisational commitment to recycling. 11 individuals and teams were honoured under the personal category, with awards handed out to Mark Butler, operations manager at Carousel Logistics; Amy Young, health and safety assistant at Edinburgh Woollen Mill for Peacocks; Martin Lythgoe, GR supervisor at Makro Preston; and, Mark Berryman, outfit retail operations at Arcadia Group named Recycling Heroes. The Outstanding Teams were: Atherstone Distribution Centre, Aldi; Elmsall Way Recycling Centre team, Wakefield, Next Retail; PSE Commercial, Britax PMG Recycling team, Bridlington; and, Tesco Polands Recycling Project team. Those named Leaders of Change were: Ahmed Khan, managing director of the Young Engineers Academy, Huddersfield; Mark Beagley, recycling manager at Dunelm Stores; and, Marc Travers, bulk warehouse manager at Littlehampton Book Services.

The organisations which were recognised by the Awards were:

• Award for Best Community Partnership winner: Cardiff City Council, Waste Strategy Team – for embracing the challenge of tackling the transient student population to maximise recycling rates. Using education and direct engagement the council had daily patrols targeting students with waste minimisation and recycling information and as a result have increased recycling and decreased black bag waste;
• Closed Loop Recycling Award winner: Oxfam Book Barn – for recovering over one million books each year and redirecting seven tonnes a day of unwanted books for recycling through a single sorting plant. Their team of three staff, supported by a team of volunteers, worked to ensure that pulp from this recycling process was used to make products such as recycled card chairs for the Hay Literature Festival;
• Continuous Excellence in Recycling winner: Tesco – for being the first major retailer to commit and achieve zero waste direct to landfill objective as well as having a pan-European commitment to a sustainable retailing solution and improving recycling in central Europe;
• Print Green Hero Award winner: Windles Group – for its regular staff refresher engagement sessions and for adopting true waste hierarchy principles. It realised that 70% of the card recycled could be reused before being recycled and 15% of that could be reused again as well as achieving a staggering 85% reduction in waste to landfill in just four weeks after introducing a company-wide recycling scheme;
• Letsrecycle Champion: Furniture Village – for its strong reduce and reuse policy engaging with local and national charities. Material not suitable for reuse or recycling is diverted through landfill diversion technologies while its zero waste commitment has seen 2,500 tonnes diverted from landfill each year;
• Retail Green Hero: Arcadia – for promoting and achieving recycling best practice over a range of brands and designing out waste by limiting capacity to just one bag of general waste a week in all stores. Its initiatives have resulted in working towards a back of store recycling rate of over 95%;

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DS Smith Recycling

• SME Recycling Success Award winner: TJ International – for developing a bespoke environmental awareness course for its staff. Its environmental committee helped to deliver a range of waste minimisation and recycling initiatives including reducing waste by 20% and achieving a 99% recycling rate;
• Zero Waste Award winner: Aldi for its commitment to achieving zero waste across its entire network of over 490 stores by 2015. It has reduced CO2 through the back haul of food waste, processed through a local network of AD and biomass plants, as well as recycled over 51,000 tonnes of card, paper and plastics. It is on course for meeting is zero waste objectives ahead of 2015, currently diverting 98% of waste from landfill.