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PDM Group scoops top recycling award

PDM Group has been named ‘Retail Recycling Champions’ at the 2006 Awards for Excellence in Recycling and Waste Management.

The award recognises the contribution PDM’s innovative supermarket food waste recycling service is making to improve recycling rates on the high street. The judges viewed the ‘milk round’ system that PDM Group has developed as providing an essential and forward-looking service, resulting in beneficial recycling and energy recovery.

The service is the only nationally available waste collection and processing scheme of its kind, recycling waste food and used cooking oils to produce renewable, green electricity for the national grid, and to supply ingredients for bio-diesel and organic chemical production.

Philip Simpson, Bio-fuels Development Manager at PDM is delighted with the award. “This recognises PDM’s commitment to delivering practical and innovative recycling and renewable energy services to the food industry. The award also recognises the dedication and commitment of our service teams and processing plants across the UK”.

“It comes at a time when supermarkets are under increasing pressure to reduce their environmental impact, particularly with regard to the amount of unsold food going to landfill”.

PDM Group’s national recycling network now services over 7,000 sites, including Marks and Spencer, Sainsbury’s, Coop, Asda and Morrisons, and in the year ending July 2006, has diverted over 25,000 tonnes of waste food from landfill.

Delivering the keynote address at the Awards, Jennie Price, chief executive of the Waste and Resources Action Programme, spoke of the revolution that was happening in waste and highlighted the fact that the household recycling rate for England had jumped from 23% to 27% in 2005/6.

Mrs Price said: “It has never been more timely to showcase the achievements of the recycling industry. To deliver the necessary magnitude of change in waste management and recycling requires significant innovation and imagination, and these awards help to demonstrate and reward the progress being made.”

The PDM team receives the award from BBC News Presenter Kate Silverton at the Awards Ceremony at London’s Savoy Hotel.

From left to right – Matthew Hill (PDM), Patrick Walker (PDM), Kate Silverton, Philip Simpson (PDM), Tony Watkins (Director of Severnside Recycling – award sponsors), Steve Emington (Editor – letsrecycle.com).

Read more about PDM Group’s national supermarket food waste recycling services

Read more about PDM Group’s renewable energy operations

Read more about PDM Group’s used cooking oil recycling services