Croydon officer triumphs at LARAC awards

Joanna Dixon, who works for Croydon council, was named Recycling Officer of the Year for her commitment to the industry. The judges were impressed with her with contribution to the borough which has seen a 12% increase in recycling since she joined and described her as a class act.

Additionally, the councils work with Veolia ES was named Best Partnership for transforming Surrey Street Market which helped achieve a 115,000 saving in operational and waste disposal costs.

The Awards are designed to recognise dedication, success and achievements of local authority recycling officers and their teams and partners. They were presented at the East Midlands Conference Centre, Nottingham following the first day of the annual Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee (LARAC) conference, held in partnership with UPM.

Other winners on the night included a furniture reuse campaign by Surrey county council which was named Best Communications Campaign and the recycling team at Aylesbury Vale district council which won the Best Team of the Year award. A nappy recycling scheme by Cheshire West and Chester council was named Best New Idea while the Merseyside and Halton Waste Partnership scooped the Waste Minimisation Project or Prevention Project.

This years entries were assessed by a panel of five judges, who were: Joy Blizzard, LARAC chair; Peter Selkirk, consultant; Colin Kirkby, LARAC executive officer; Linda Crichton, head of quality and collections at WRAP; and, Will Date, acting news editor at letsrecycle.com.

The full list of LARAC award winners for 2013 are:

Best Communications Campaign, sponsored by UPM

Furniture Reuse Campaign, Surrey county council

Surrey set out on a campaign to encourage the sale of reusable furniture after a 2010 survey found that 51% of residents said that nothing would encourage them to buy the products. Three years later, 95% of residents said the furniture reuse campaign encouraged them to buy reusable furniture which was accompanied by a 25% uplift in footfall and sales across the Surrey Reuse Network.

The council helped to change the perception of the products by identifying the audience most likely to buy and targeted them with an affordability and quality message. The campaign was delivered through a range of tactics including PR and advertising via traditional media channels, combined with use of film, online and social media to achieve greater engagement and interaction.

Best Partnership, sponsored by Viridor

Transforming Surrey Street Market, Croydon council

The partnership introduced paper and card recycling as well as food waste recycling in a bid to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill, which prior to the project accounted for 100% of the waste produced at the site. Through this work, the partnership achieved savings of 115,000 through operational and disposal costs as well as improved street cleanliness.

The judges said the partnership between the council, Veolia ES and Surrey Street Market went further than simply reducing waste to landfill. They also acknowledged that this type of relationship can be difficult to maintain and praised their successful work so far.

Best Team of the Year, sponsored by Biffa

Aylesbury Vale district council

Aylesbury Vale district councils waste transformation team had to tackle complex interdependent work streams, with limited resources and extremely tight deadlines. They proved to be successful and in one year they a 52% recycling rate, saved 500,000, signed up 13,000 customers to a garden collection scheme and saw a 39% decrease in waste to landfill, multi million pound procurement programmes as well as a depot rebuild and an intensive communications campaign.

Best Minimisation Project or Prevention Project, sponsored by Repic

Merseyside and Halton Waste Partnership

The partnership of seven local authorities manages a Waste Prevention Programme to deliver the objectives for municipal waste management in the Liverpool city region. In 2012/13 it prioritised food, textiles, junk mail and home composting and engaged with 1.5 million residents. Based on the Waste Prevention and Carbon Toolkit metrics, the programme, particularly the Love Food Hate Waste campaign, made a 38.45% contribution in reducing household waste arising in the city region.

The judges felt the project demonstrated clear savings for the councils involved with an impressive tonnage of material collected across Merseyside.

Recycling Officer of the Year, sponsored by Hadfield Wood Recyclers

Joanna Dixon, Croydon council

Joanna Dixon has worked for Croydon Council since 2010 as a Community Recycling Officer. She has helped deliver a step change in approach and has supported a new food waste service for over 120,000 properties, managed an engagement team directly engaging over 20,000 residents, delivered a waste reduction campaign where participants achieved a 20% reduction and redesigned calendars to encourage increased participation and capture of materials. In the last year alone the authority said that Ms Dixon a has worked in a diverse range of areas, from projects aimed at driving up participation and developing new policy to delivering a substantial Love Food Hate Waste campaign and developed partnerships for reuse.

The panel of judges recognised that Joannas entry showed that she is not afraid to take on a broad range of challenges and activities, while also getting great results, as evidenced by her contribution to a 12% increase in recycling rates since she joined the borough.

Best New Idea, sponsored by Electrolink

Nappycycle, Cheshire West and Chester council

In July 2012, Cheshire West and Chester council introduced the first weekly kerbside nappy and incontinence product recycling scheme in England (see letsrecycle.com story). The scheme, named Nappycycle, enabled residents to recycle nappies and other absorbent hygiene products (AHPs). Dedicated collections took place from 1500 properties on a weekly basis, with approximately 15% of the customers using the service for incontinence waste.

Customer satisfaction rates of 99.2% were achieved and the service was is continuous high demand. The Nappycycle pilot ended in August 2013, and the team is researching alternative methods to recycle the waste following the closure of the Knowaste plant.

The judges said the councils decision to launch the scheme was brave. They were impressed with the level of customer satisfaction with the scheme and noted that given the ageing population in the UK, AHP recycling will become a greater issue for councils to tackle and felt that Cheshire West and Chester council should be praised for their forward thinking approach to this challenge.