Recolight Named Recycling Business of the Year
Recolight, the UK’s WEEE (EU Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive) compliance scheme for the lighting industry, won the Award for Recycling and Waste Management Business of the Year (SME) at the National Recycling Awards on July 4.
The recycling and waste management industry has made significant progress over the years, moving recycling from a marginal issue right into the mainstream. The National Recycling Awards recognize excellence in all parts of the waste hierarchy and in all sections of the industry. Successful entrants have to demonstrate effective strategy, tangible improvement, innovative and creative solutions, and a strong business case.
The Recycling and Waste Management Business of the Year (SME) is a new category that recognizes the vital role that small businesses have to play in recycling and waste management. The award celebrates exceptional customer service, market innovation, growth and high performance in the UK, and Recolight was recognized for its education and communication programs for this “difficult” waste stream.
Nigel Harvey, Recolight Chief Executive said; “The whole team at Recolight is very proud and pleased to have won this award. It is recognition of our achievements since the WEEE Regulations were introduced 5 years ago and of our commitment to expanding lamp recycling facilities for all.”
Harvey also spoke in June at an event to mark the fifth anniversary of the WEEE Regulations: “Recolight’s passion and dedication to lamp recycling is clear from the figures. We have funded the recycling of over 125 million lamps since July 2007, and since the beginning of 2010 we have seen our membership nearly double from 56 to over 100 members.”
Business waste collections are at the heart of what Recolight does. Harvey continued, “There are now 1,140 B2B collection points in the Recolight network, of which more than 340 are open and available for any business to use on a free of charge basis. We also provide approximately 100 ad hoc collections from re-lamp projects each month.”
“Recolight is committed to extending recycling services to all. Given the ubiquitous nature of lamps, we now work with a broad range of organizations, including hospitals, universities, local government and even police forces dismantling cannabis farms.”
“Our consumer collection point network has grown to over 800 locations. We have been working on raising consumer awareness of the need to recycle their low-energy light bulbs through radio interviews, which reached over 2 million listeners. Bertie Bulb’s tour of consumer collection points across the UK last August raised the profile of the need to recycle consumer lamps.”
Also in June, Recolight expanded access to lamp recycling facilities by lowering the threshold companies need to meet to qualify for free-of-charge lamp recycling. Whereas previously businesses had to collect 1000 lamps every 3 months to be eligible to receive completely free of charge collection services, now businesses collecting 1000 lamps every 6 months can also benefit from Recolight’s free collection services. Harvey commented, “Expanding access to waste lamp recycling is very important to us. By lowering the threshold and allowing more businesses to become collection points, we hope that as many lamps as possible will be recycled.”
Wholesale businesses becoming collection points can benefit from Recolight’s industry expertise, and from being an open collection point listed on the Recolight online collection point map, which enables their customers to also access free-of-charge lamp recycling.
Source: www.recolight.co.uk