Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 18th April 2024 Issue no. 1110

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Recycling project run by Warwickshire charities, wins Big Society Award

A recycling project, run by two Warwickshire charities, which pumps profits into local community projects, has won a Big Society Award.

Warwickshire Community Recycling runs two recycling centres, in Stockton and Wellesbourne, Warwickshire. Warwickshire Community & Voluntary Action and the Heart of England Community Foundation set up the project in 2012. It was the first voluntary sector partnership to take over a recycling centre from the County Council, saving it from closure.

Proceeds from the social enterprise's recycling centres and re-use shops are now contributing to the Heart of England Community's foundation, which supports hundreds of grass-roots community groups with grants including Community Sports Clubs and youth and community groups.

Prime Minister David Cameron said of the Award win, (which was announced as residents were taking down their Christmas decorations):

"Warwickshire Community Recycling is a fantastic project that lets people turn their piles of discarded wrapping paper, Christmas card envelopes and present packaging into cash for local community projects. I'm delighted to be recognising the hard work of the team with this Big Society Award."

Wayne Gibbons, Manager from Warwickshire Community Recycling, said:

"We set up in 2012 to avoid the closure of two civic amenity sites. To support this we were given the opportunity to run reuse shops on three other household recycling sites. Since then we have achieved recycling rates of 70 to 75% on our two sites and have sold over 200 tonnes of reusable items.

"Our staff and volunteers have worked hard to emphasise the benefits of reuse and recycling, and are able to demonstrate the effectiveness of combining both waste strategies on a single site. It is great to be recognised with a Big Society Award as it helps us to underline the social, less tangible, benefits that can accrue from partnerships of this nature."

27th February 2014