Council recycling team scoops second award

THE Bracknell Forest Council recycling team scooped another award for innovation last week.

Along with their waste partner SITA UK, the council won the local authority innovation prize at the prestigious National Recycling Awards 2015 in London last week. The team behind the scheme was joined by officers and councillors at the awards ceremony as they won Gold in the ‘Connecting People’ category.

Steve Loudoun, Bracknell Forest Council’s chief officer for environment and public protection, said: “This award is our second this year and recognises the hard work of the council and our contractor, SITA UK, to launch and grow the recycling rewards scheme.

“The NRA 2015 judges said our scheme stood out from the other seven contenders for the way it rewards residents for recycling, promotes a healthy lifestyle by using points for sports centre activities and allows reward points to be donated to local good causes using our own e+ smart card. We are delighted to be winners.” They were also recognised for using e+ smartcard technology to connect to customers at the Improvement and Efficiency Social Enterprise awards in March.

The smartcard scheme has been running for two years and gives households points every time they recycle correctly.

Residents can use the points they collect to get rewards, ranging from South Hill Park theatre tickets to borrowing a DVD from a library, or they can donate them to local good causes.

Cllr Dorothy Hayes, executive member for the environment, said: “Many congratulations are due to all our council officers and SITA UK partners, but huge thanks must also go to the 12,000 households in our community which are already signed up to the scheme.

“Their brilliant efforts to recycle correctly are reducing the amount of waste going to landfill, which is great for the environment and helps the council save money.” For more information about the recycling rewards scheme go to www.bracknell-forest.gov.uk/recyclingincentivescheme