The 2015 LARAC Celebration Awards were held in Nottingham during the LARAC Conference as the industry came together to celebrate the hard work of local authorities and their partners. LARAC CEO Lee Marshall hosted the Awards evening and commended the commitment and hard work of all local authority officers across the UK as well as those who had been shortlisted for each award.
The first Award of the evening was Best Communications Campaign sponsored by FCC Environment. The winner was Hackneys Food Waste Experiment with the judges praising the robust research, real results and the huge response it got from residents. Eastleigh Borough Council’s ‘Recycle with Daisy Scheme’ and Surrey County Councils ‘Textiles Recycling Campaign’ were the other finalists.
The Best Partnership Award sponsored by Viridor went to Blackpool Borough Council and Helping Hands Charity for their roving HWRC service that targeted areas of the borough with low car ownership. The scheme utilised income from the HWRC Reuse shop to sustain it. The other finalists in this hotly contested award were Cumbria County Council with Freegle and North Ayrshire Councils Furniture and Bulky Waste Project.
The third award of evening recognised teamwork with the Best Team of the Year Award supported by Biffa. Three very different teams made the shortlist with West London Waste Authority coming out on top for their professionalism, adaptability and initiative in implementing their waste prevention plan. Other finalist Dacorum Borough Councils ‘Recycle for Dacorum Project Team’ was a great example of a one off team whilst Cherwell and South Northants Council undertook a complete service merger backed up with social media
Best Waste Minimisation or Waste Prevention Project sponsored by REPIC was given this year to South Norfolk for their ‘Give and Take Reuse Events’ which really engaged with the local community and got them involved. West London again made a shortlist along with the Merseyside and Halton Community Fund
The penultimate award was Best New Idea sponsored by Suez and the winner was Warwickshire County Council for the work they have done in franchising Reuse Shops at the HWRC sites. The other shortlisted ideas were from London Borough of Redbridge for their efforts on bring sites and Cherwell and South Northants making a second shortlist on the evening.
The final award was for the LARAC Champion sponsored by Countrystyle and goes to the recycling officer who most embodies and demonstrates what the job is all about. The winner Andrew Jenkins from Cherwell District Council follows some great previous winners and his success was all the more noteworthy as he had been nominated by a different local authority. The judges also sang the praises of the other two finalists, David Whitehouse from Warwickshire County Council and Simone Singleton from South Bucks District Council, who both ran Andrew close. On top of being crowned LARAC Champion Andrew also gets the chance to join the LARAC Executive for the year.
It was great to have the chance to celebrate sheer inventiveness and hard work of our members - we'd like to say a huge thank you to all those who entered and to our very generous sponsors - without you none of it could have taken place.
