Bryson Recycling Review of the Year 2019

It was a busy and exciting year for Bryson Recycling in 2019 - here are some of our main highlights and achievements:

RECYCLING STATS

• 42,000 tonnes of materials recycled across all our services.  
• We collected and processed recycling from 55% of homes in Northern Ireland.  
• We had over 245,000 visitors to our Recycling Centres in Donegal and Wales.
• Collecting high quality materials that can be recycled locally remains our main focus, as this is better for the environment, the economy and creates local jobs. To find out more about where our recycling goes please click here.

CONTRACT UPDATES

• arc21 MRF Contract

In October we were awarded a three year contract with arc21, a collaborative partnership of six councils in the east of Northern Ireland, to sort recycling materials collected in wheeled bins across 250,000 households at our Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) in Mallusk. We were delighted to re-win this contract, which we have been operating since 2005 and to secure the jobs of over 100 members of staff.

• Conwy Garden Waste Contract

In December we won a contract with Conwy County Borough Council to deliver a new garden waste collection service to their households. The five year contract, with an option for five more years, will be launched in the New Year. We already run two Recycling Centres in Conwy on behalf of the Council and look forward to working with them on this new venture.

• Recycling Centre Contracts

In April our contracts for running 8 Recycling Centres in Donegal and Wales were both extended for a further year by Donegal County Council and Conwy County Borough Council.

• The Bryson Model

Our innovative approach to kerbside recycling, using Wheelie Boxes, is currently taking hold across Northern Ireland with a number of councils, including Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council, Belfast City Council, Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council and Mid and East Antrim Borough Council considering and planning the introduction of Wheelie Boxes with extensive trials and expansion plans to over 35,000 households. This will bring the total number of households with Wheelie Boxes in Northern Ireland to 75,000, which could potentially increase to 350,000 if these councils switched all their households over to this service.

• Reuse Shop

We opened Reuse Shop at our Recycling Centre in Mochdre in 2018 with the aim of extending the life of reusable household items while generating profits for a very worthwhile local charity, St David’s Hospice. During the last year over 152 tonnes of items have been diverted from landfill, generating over £58,500 for the charity to help them provide care for local adult patients with advanced illnesses or those in need of end of life care, and their families.

HEALTH AND SAFETY

We are committed to providing a safe place to work for all our staff and continually look for ways to improve our approach to Health and Safety, so we were delighted to see some excellent improvements in our stats this year, including a 50% reduction in personal accidents and a 17% reduction in vehicle accidents. Our Armagh site recently celebrated a year without a personal accident.

CHARITIES AND FUNDRAISING

In the last financial year we gift aided £600,000 to our parent Charity, the Bryson Charitable Group.  This donation is used to support the wider work of the Bryson Group who work with and help some of the most vulnerable people in our society.  Below is a photo of staff and board members who are involved in Bryson Intercultural.  They work to support people from ethnic minority groups including Irish travellers, refugees and people seeking asylum.

• Recycling Rewards

£21,000 has been donated to MACS as a result of this year’s Recycling Rewards campaign. Every year we donate £1 for every tonne of paper, glass and plastic recycling through our kerbside service to charity, in partnership with local companies Huhtamaki, Encirc and Cherry Pipes.

MACS provide a range of services for children and young people between the ages of 11 and 25 who have experienced difficult times in their lives.

• Volunteer Days

We give all our staff a day off each year to volunteer in the local community. A big thanks to FareShare Northern Ireland for hosting a number of volunteer days for our staff this year. It was a great opportunity to learn more about the excellent work they do in redistributing surplus food to those in need.

• School Bikes for Africa

During October we collected old and unused bikes at our Recycling Centres in Donegal for Letterkenny Rotary Club’s School Bikes for Africa Appeal. 120 bikes were collected and sent to Loughlin Open Prison in Cavan for repair before being shipped to Gambia to help children get to school safely.

• Charity Donations in Donegal

On an annual basis, our team in Donegal set about collecting recyclable materials that could raise money for local charities in the area. This year the team have managed to raise €1116, which has been split between two very worthwhile charities; Donegal Hospice and Aranmore Lifeboat.

We also collect wheelchairs and crutches at all sites and send them on to Haiti for reuse.

AWARDS

• WISH NI Ambassador Award

We were delighted to receive a WISH NI Ambassador Award in April for demonstrating health and safety best practise within the Northern Ireland Waste Management Industry for the fifth year running.

• CO3 Social Entrepreneurial Award

Our Director, Eric Randall, received the CO3 Social Entrepreneurial Leadership Award in March. They recognised Eric as a serial social entrepreneur with over 29 years’ experience in the recycling industry, whose passion and personal commitment to the environment and recycling has resulted in Bryson Recycling celebrating 26 successful years in business.

• Sponsorship

We were proud to sponsor the Bryson Recycling Award in this year’s West Belfast Partnership Environmental Awards. St Maria Goretti Nursery School won the award in recognition of the hard work of staff and pupils in enhancing the quality of their environment to make their school a better place to work and play.

Our success over the last 12 months is all down to the of the dedication and commitment of all the team at Bryson Recycling who work hard to provide a high quality service to all our customers.