2019 Overall Pakman Award Winner
The Aran Islands Co-op Recycling Project (Athchursail Árann) was awarded the top prize at the 2019 Pakman Awards, the Overall Pakman Award, for its innovative and exceptional work transforming the waste management and recycling infrastructure on the Aran Islands, which have Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) status under the EU Natural Habitats Directive.
This award was sponsored by:
Battery Champion
The Castletroy College E-Mining@School project had a major emphasis on batteries and sustainability. Lessons on smartphone batteries were threaded across several subjects, including technology lessons on how to replace batteries in smartphones which involved doing a smartphone teardown. The WEEE collection event was very successful and resulted in over 11 tonnes of WEEE being collected, of which there was 324 kg of batteries collected.
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Business Recycling Champion
RTÉ was named the winner of this the 2019 Business Recycling Champion Award. RTÉ was recognised by the Pakman Awards judging panel for performance across all areas of environmental impact, demonstrating their responsible approach as a national broadcaster and in association with all its stakeholders. They were commended for implementing waste segregation across all its facilities and eliminating unnecessary single use plastics, achieving an over 80% recycling rate and zero to landfill status.
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Community Recycling Initiative of the Year
The Aran Islands Co-op Recycling Project (Athchursail Árann) is this year celebrating 20 years of a unique rural kerbside project which is reusing and recycling 58.4% of household and commercial waste on the Aran Islands – set up many years before any other similar scheme nationally in urban or rural areas. This project was entirely set up and led by the local community Co-Op based in Kilronan.
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Environmental Education and Awareness Initiative of the Year
Castletroy College’s teacher-led E-mining@school initiative developed high quality educational materials to raise awareness and engage secondary school students on the importance of recycling e-waste. The innovative project led by eight teachers incorporated sustainability into the curriculum to teach teenagers about urban mining their smartphones for critical raw materials. Through the project, students also became familiar with, and champions of, a Circular Economy, with many actively changing their behaviour, especially in relation to recycling.
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Food Waste Management
BuJo, in Sandymount, specialises in chargrilled burgers using a custom blend of 100% Irish, grass fed beef raised on Irish family farms. The menu is overseen by Culinary Director & Michelin Bib Gourmand Chef Gráinne O’Keefe. BuJo is the only burger focused restaurant in Ireland & the UK to hold a 3 Star rating from the Sustainable Restaurant Association. BuJo was chosen by the judging panel for creating a sustainable menu that eliminates unnecessary packaging waste, introducing 100% compostable packaging, and for its exceptional recycling of 95% of food waste to energy.
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Green Transport of the Year
Kerry based waste management company, Dillon Waste, won the 2019 Green Transport of the Year Award. A family run company, Dillon Waste was selected by the judging panel for introducing an innovative new lifting system for waste collection and a range of other fleet upgrades. This has resulted in increasing the company’s transport efficiency by 33% and has saved significantly on carbon emissions and man hours, including reducing the company’s carbon footprint by a total of 15,000kg carbon emissions a year.
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Innovation in Waste Resource Products Or Services
University College Cork (UCC) won the Innovation in Waste Resource Products or Services award, sponsored by Ibec. UCC, in collaboration with its food service partner KSG, launched the Bio Green Café, Ireland’s first single-use plastic free café. In the first three months of the café’s operation, over 20,000 pieces of single use plastic items were eliminated from use. When choosing a winner of the Innovation in Waste Resource Products or Services award category, the judging panel singled out the café’s initiative, recognising it as a significant stepping stone to achieving UCC’s commitment to becoming a single use plastic free campus by 2023.
As category winner, UCC’s Bio-Green Café will now be considered for entry into the European Business Awards 2020. The university’s sustainability efforts have not only been commended on a national level, but now may also be singled out at a European level in 2020.
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Plastic Pledge Member of the Year
Coca Cola HBC Ireland & Northern Ireland won the inaugural Repak Plastic Pledge Member of the Year category. The new category was open to any of over 90 Repak members who have signed the Plastic Pledge, committing to achieve specific objectives relating to reducing plastic packaging and increasing the recyclability of packaging. Coca Cola topped the category by demonstrating its outstanding commitment to these objectives, including becoming the first water brand in Ireland to introduce 100% recyclable bottles, reducing plastic levels in all bottles by 7.5%, achieving 40% recycled PET integration across its plastic portfolio, and investing significantly in PET recycling facilities
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Tyre Champion
Bray based tyre company, A Plus Service Centre provides a range of motoring services to residents in the locality. The Pakman Awards judging panel singled out A Plus Service Centre for its work supporting Repak ELT in the rollout of the scheme’s various initiatives that have promoted tyre safety and recycling as well as actively disposing of its waste correctly through an accredited waste collection operator.
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Waste Prevention Business Award
At Hotel Doolin, prevention of food waste is key. The hotel served 294,583 in 2018; therefore prevention, re-use, recycling, recovery and disposal are all key factors in the food waste prevention programme that the hotel’s green team runs. Hotel Doolin was selected by the Pakman Awards judging panel for making a conscious effort to prevent waste from the almost 300,000 meals served to its guests. The boutique hotel has also implemented several sustainability practices that were recognised by the judges as being best in class, including banning the use of single use plastics and using sustainable materials where possible in all rooms.
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Waste Recovery Operator of the Year – Commercial
Thorntons Recycling offers its commercial clients a “one stop shop solution” for Waste Management & Recycling Services. With an investment of over €50m in Recycling facilities, all materials are processed to ensure maximum recycling and recovery. Thorntons Recycling was chosen by the judging panel for continuing to play an important role in driving an increase in recycling rates across the Dublin region, through creative recycling initiatives and commercial client education programmes.
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Waste Recovery Operator of the Year – Household
Clean Ireland Recycling was chosen by the judging panel for not only leading by example in its own waste management practices, but for also informing the wider community of what they can do to protect Ireland’s environment for future generations. Clean Ireland Recycling has grown to a multi-million-euro enterprise, employing approximately 100 people, operating two waste transfer facilities, and running four customer service centres. Clean Ireland Recycling was chosen as winner for continually driving innovation, including pioneering Ireland’s first CNG fuelled fleet and delivering exemplary customer service.
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Waste Recycling and Recovery Facility Of The Year
Irish Packaging Recycling (IPR) was awarded the Waste Recycling and Recovery Facility of the Year Award, sponsored by Repak. IPR is the largest recycling operation in Ireland and is part of Beauparc, a diverse group of companies that includes power generation, power sales, resource recovery and recycling. IPR manages over 100,000 tonnes of recycling waste annually and has worked tirelessly over the past twelve months to transform its facilities to recycle more plastics, including investing over €3.2m in new facilities and educating over 250,000 customers on best-practice recycling.
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WEEE Champion
Recycle IT won the award for WEEE Champion, sponsored by WEEE Ireland. Recycle IT is a social enterprise and community-based recycling initiative that offers employment and reduces environmental harm by increasing the recycling of electrical items in communities with social issues. Collection and drop off services are provided to homes, communities, educators, and charities at no charge. Sustainability is built on good relationships, offering excellent service and providing people with real help when recycling. In the last 12 months alone, they have achieved an increase of over 1,000 tonnes of electrical items recycled.
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