Recycling scheme commended at national awards ceremony
A pioneering partnership scheme between Warwickshire County Council, Her Majesty’s Prison Onley, Warwickshire Environmental Trust and Coventry City Mission has been `highly commended’ at a national awards ceremony.
The ‘Goods Again’ project, which gets recycled household electrical equipment to those in need was shortlisted as a finalist for the National Recycling Awards 2006, and was one of just five nominees with the chance of winning the Best Partnership Project for Recycling award.
The scheme came in second place with a `highly commended’ award and sees unwanted household electrical appliances collected by Warwickshire County Council, often through the recycling shops in Leamington and Stratford, and then prisoners working in a purpose built workshop at Onley Prison are trained to refurbish them. Once refurbished the goods are offered to those in need at a low cost.
The project was commended by the judges for bringing together a wide range of partners and they said: “The scheme offers great social and training aspects, as well as recycling.” They also noted the training opportunities offered by the scheme and the involvement of local schools to collect small waste electrical items.
The project missed out on the top spot to CRISP and the Greater London Authority who worked together to secure funding from the London Recycling Fund with the aim of increasing recycling rates in student halls of residence to help meet recycling targets, raise recycling awareness and encourage reuse.
Cllr Martin Heatley, Warwickshire County Council’s Portfolio Holder for the Environment, said: “This scheme not only provides employment focussed training, but also helps to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill locally.
“We are delighted to have received this `highly commended’ award, and to have our work recognised on a national scale is testament to the efforts we are making in Warwickshire to become more sustainable.”
The Big Lottery’s Community Recycling and Economic Development Programme, Biffaward and Her Majesty’s Prison Service fund the project.
The National Recycling Awards, now in their eighth year, are recognised as a stamp of excellence in the recycling industry and represent success and innovation.
The awards ceremony was held at the Bournemouth International Centre on Wednesday, November 15.
For full details of all the awards see http://www.nationalrecyclingawards.com