ACE UK announces Golden Carton Awards winners
The Team at Mid Devon District County Council Receive their Golden Carton Award
The Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment (ACE) UK has revealed the winners of the Golden Carton Awards 2013, which recognise and reward local authorities for the greatest improvements in beverage carton recycling.
The awards were launched last year (2013) to celebrate environmental leadership and examples of best practice in recycling.
Commenting on the awards, 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.”
Greatest Percentage Increase
Mid Devon District Council has won the award for ‘Greatest Percentage Increase in Beverage Carton Recycling’.
Via its black box kerbside sort scheme, the council has been collecting beverage cartons for recycling since 2004. According to ACE, the council’s collection rates have continued to improve thanks to a number of projects aimed to educate and encourage residents to recycle more.
Commenting on Mid Devon’s 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, added: “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
Harrogate Borough Council receive their Golden Carton Award from Fay Dashper, ACE UK.
Harrogate Borough Council was awarded ‘Best Communications Campaign’ for its work in engaging with its residents, community groups, schools and local interest groups to promote recycling.
ACE identified Harrogate’s organisation of a ‘wide range of activities’ and ‘excellent use of major events in the borough’ as the winning features of its 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 per cent 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.”
Councillor Phil Ireland, Harrogate Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment, Transport and External Affairs, added: “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.”
Carton recycling in the UK
ACE UK opened a new beverage carton recycling plant near Halifax, West Yorkshire last year (2013).
Dashper concluded: “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.”
With a ’14-fold increase’ in the percentage of local authorities collecting cartons at kerbside from four per cent in 2006 to 57 per cent in 2014, ACE UK hopes to continue its ‘positive working relationship’ with local authorities.
Read more about ACE’s work with local authorities.
