Member Article

North East recycling company joins forces with colleges

A North East recycling business is taking its green message back to the classroom after securing waste management contracts with two of the region’s largest colleges.

J & B Recycling has been appointed on three year contracts to handle all waste produced at both Hartlepool College of Further Education and Cleveland College of Art and Design (CCAD).

The Hartlepool-based business already manages waste for Middlesbrough College and a number of schools and is keen to expand its influence within the education sector.

Vikki Jackson-Smith, managing director of J & B Recycling, said: “We are delighted to win the waste management contracts for both Hartlepool College and CCAD as they are such well-known and respected organisations in the town.

“Hartlepool College alone has 9,000 staff and students so there is a significant amount of materials generated each week. One of the encouraging things about working within the education sector is that the young people are often very engaged with recycling and understand the importance of collecting and sorting waste. That makes our job easier but also helps to create a welcoming environment for anyone visiting the College.”

J & B Recycling – Hartlepool’s Business of the Year for 2013 – has awarded the facility its prestigious Zero Waste to Landfill accreditation, which certifies that every scrap of waste is recycled, including materials produced from the College’s construction and engineering academies.

The contract with CCAD currently covers the Art College’s faculty in Middlesbrough but will be extended to its Hartlepool campus in May.

Mrs Jackson-Smith added: “Once we’d met the team Hartlepool College and built up that confidence and trust, we came up with a proposal which we felt best matched their needs as they were keen to reduce the amount of waste which ends up in landfill.

“The Zero Waste to Landfill accreditation is an outstanding achievement and we are delighted that we now have 50 of our customers that have reached that milestone from pubs and offices, to shopping centres and factories.”

Hartlepool College principal Darren Hankey said: “A College of this size generates many tonnes of waste each month including paper, packaging plastic cups, food waste as well as metals, glass and construction materials.

“As a sustainable business with clear targets around our environmental impact, we wanted to make sure what we had in place was as efficient as it could be. Working with a local company which knows the waste management sector so well, was very important to us.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Graham Vincent .