MITIE was awarded the Commercial Recycling Champion award in partnership with Cardiff Airport at the letsrecycle.com awards last week. 

The FTSE 250 strategic outsourcer implemented a recycling scheme that has helped improve the airport’s recycling rate from 20 to 75 per cent in just nine months by recycling batteries, cans, cardboard, glass green waste, plastics, and wood. 

In August 2010 Cardiff Airport – which serves over 1 million passengers a year on domestic and international routes – teamed up with MITIE to increase the recycling rate of all waste produced from the airport. 

Since then, Margaret James of Cardiff Airport and Jason Coleman of MITIE championed recycling initiatives to reduce the volume of waste going to landfill sites. 

This was achieved by placing new mixed-recycling bins beside all general waste bins, bringing in a new waste disposal contractor to send un-recycled waste offsite for processing, and selling waste materials to waste processers, with 25 per cent of all profits reinvested in the process. 

The ceremony took place at the eighth annual letsrecycle.com Awards for Excellence on Thursday 12th May, which aims to recognise the work of companies in the recycling and waste management industry. The awards were presented by Channel 4 News’ Krishnan Guru-Murthy. 

Mike Taylor, Managing Director for MITIE’s waste and environmental business, said: “I am delighted that MITIE’s work, in partnership with Cardiff Airport, gets the recognition it deserves. 

By looking at sustainability issues from an FM point of view and working in partnership with our clients we can significantly improve their environmental performance.” 

Steve Eminton, editor of letsrecycle.com, said: “The judges were impressed with how the collaboration of MITIE with Cardiff Airport delivered on its aim to raise the recycling rate at the airport not just for a few materials but for a wider range including batteries, cans, cardboard and glass. 

The fact that some of the some of the receipts from the material sales have been reinvested was also hailed by the judges who felt this was something that could be achieved on a wider scale in the commercial sector.” 

Picture caption: (l-r) Krishnan Guru-Murthy; Margaret James, Cardiff Airport; Jason Coleman, MITIE; Vicky Hughes of Hadfield Wood Recyclers (sponsor); and Steve Eminton, editor of letsrecycle.com 

-ENDS-

Notes for editors

What is MITIE?
We’re the strategic outsourcing company. What does that mean in practice? We manage facilities, properties and assets for our clients across the UK and beyond.

We work with our clients in three ways; some take full advantage of our whole range of expertise, others may only need one aspect of what we do:

Strategy and consultancy
+ Facilities and project management
+ Service delivery

Our strategic input can add value at the highest level by helping clients to manage their assets, while our practical management expertise can save customers money and reduce their carbon emissions. We work with a vast number of clients in every industry across both the public and private sectors and deliver the broadest range of services that can be found in one place: from integrated facilities management to engineering maintenance to lifecycle energy management and much more.

There’s a lot more to MITIE than you probably think. We’re a big company with big ambitions – a leading FTSE 250 support services business, with more than 56,000 people, revenues in excess of £1.7bn, and a reputation for being the best.

Visit us at www.mitie.com