The awards look to recognise the hard work of local authority recycling teams, individuals and partnerships.
Held at the NEC Birmingham Hilton hotel, the awards returned to the first in-person awards since 2019.
In his opening address, Mr Marshall said: “The LARAC Celebration Awards are rightly special to everyone in this room as they celebrate the hard work and achievements of you – the LARAC members and the organisations that work with them.
“Unfortunately there just isn’t enough room on the shortlist for everyone, but you should all be proud of your commitment to delivering bigger and better services to the residents in your areas.
“The past year has been one like no other. Given the very real and ongoing challenges the Covid-19 pandemic has caused and the mammoth task of responding to the consultations on consistency, DRS and EPR – the work you do is quite frankly unbelievable. The way services have kept rolling is nothing short of a miracle and I am in awe of you and salute you all.”
The winners are as follows:
Best communications campaign of the year – sponsored by Contenur
Winner: Greater Manchester Combined authority and Tameside Metropolitan Borough council | #SortItOutTameside Paper and card contamination campaign.
The #SortItOutTameside campaign, undertaken by GMCA and Tameside, aimed to tackle contamination in the paper and card bins in Tameside using leaflets, bin stickers, bin tags, social media, video and advertising, and showed the “true impact” and cost of contamination in the recycling.
Best Partnership award – sponsored by Viridor
Winner: London borough of Hillingdon and NHS
Hillingdon had an issue with needles being placed in recycling bags. As a result of the partnership, Hillingdon doubled their clinical waste service for sharp boxes and prevented needle injuries to their workforce and that of the recycling partners at their sorting plant.
Best team of the year – sponsored by Biffa
Winner: ODS – Oxford city council
Oxford’s Recycling and Waste Team are described as a “hardy bunch” and “dedicated, hardworking and ambitious”, that continually improves to provide an exemplary collection service.
Best waste minimisation or prevention project – sponsored by Repic
Winner: Bristol Waste Company
Bristol’s #WasteNothing Challenge aimed to reduce the amount of waste produced in Bristol. In this unusual campaign, Bristol Waste tested the theory that with the right support and advice, households can reduce their environmental impact aiming for zero-waste.
Best new idea – sponsored by IPL
Winner: Devon county council
Devon’s Shared Saving Scheme delivered a step change in how household waste is collected and treated in Devon. By generating a massive £6.8m saving in treatment costs the District Councils have been able to invest in new waste collection services to increase their levels of recycling from 47.9% to 55.2%.
Outstanding contribution to recycling – sponsored by Countrystyle
Winner: Wendy Fail, Northumberland county council
Wendy is described as “one of the most passionate and dedicated waste management professionals”.
In the last 6 years with her time at South Tyne and Wear, and more recently in Northumberland, she has successfully engaged with over 50,000 children and adults as part of the recycling and waste awareness education programme in both areas.
Subscribe for free