013, the awards celebrate environmental leadership and recycling best-practice, and are open to all local authorities signed-up to send beverage cartons to ACE UK’s new UK recycling facility. Mid Devon District Council has won the award for ‘Greatest Percentage Increase in Beverage Carton Recycling’. The local authority has been collecting beverage cartons for recycling since 2004 via its black box kerbside sort scheme and has continued to improve collection rates through a number of projects to educate and encourage residents to recycle more.
Commenting on the entry the judges said: “The effort that Mid Devon District Council has put in to beverage carton recycling is really impressive and shows what can be done when residents have clear, easy to understand information and are motivated to engage in recycling.”
Felicity Jones, Recycling Officer for Mid Devon District Council said: “We are delighted to receive this award, recognising the effort we have put in to increase carton recycling. Our residents responded very positively when we added beverage cartons to our kerbside collections way back in 2004, and we are working hard to make sure we continue to build on that success.”
Best Communications Campaign was awarded to Harrogate Borough Council. The council arranged a wide range of activities, from direct contact with residents to easily accessible information on the Council’s website; made excellent use of major events in the borough to reach local residents; and proactively engaged with community groups, schools and local interest groups to promote the recycling message.
Commenting on the entry the Judges said: “The campaign showed great creativity in finding ways to reach the widest possible audience and this is reflected in a 20% increase in beverage carton recycling in Harrogate over the last three years, and the hope that 2014 will produce even further increases. This is a great achievement at a time when local authority budgets are being squeezed from all sides.”
Sally Wilson, Recycling Communications Officer at Harrogate Borough Council said: “Our residents have always responded positively to our recycling programmes but with tough targets to meet it is important that we get as many people as possible actively engaged in recycling. We put a lot of thought and effort into our communications programme and it is great to see it pay off in our recycling rates and to be recognised nationally for our efforts.”
Councillor Phil Ireland, Harrogate Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment, Transport & External Affairs said: “We have made some really great progress on recycling but with tough targets to meet, it is important that we continue to actively engage with our residents.
“Increasing the amount of waste we recycle from this area, reduces disposal costs and harmful greenhouse gas emissions, making our service more environmentally-friendly and providing better value for money for local residents.”
Fay Dashper, Senior Recycling Manager at ACE UK said: “We were delighted to receive such a high standard of entries to the awards. It demonstrates the excellent work that local authorities are doing to promote recycling.
“We are committed to increasing carton recycling in the UK and with the opening of our dedicated UK beverage carton recycling plant last year, we hope to encourage many more councils to add cartons to their kerbside collection services.”
Beverage carton recycling has come a long way in the last seven years. The positive working relationship between ACE UK and local authorities has helped create a 14-fold increase in the percentage of local authorities collecting cartons at kerbside - from 4% of local authorities in 2006 to 57% in 2014. When ACE UK’s own bring-bank system is included, 91% of local authorities now collect cartons for recycling compared to just 20% in 2006.
