The shortlist has been revealed for the Kirklees Recycling Heroes Awards 2024.

The awards are organised by Kirklees which aims to have zero avoidable waste by 2038 so regards these recycling heroes as setting the gold standard when it comes to reducing, reusing and recycling in Kirklees.

Cabinet member for environment and highways Clr Munir Ahmed said: “The Recycling Hero Awards are in their third year and the judges had just as difficult a time shortlisting the nominees as usual, due to the fantastic work of our residents.

“We are delighted to be able to shine a light on those who have gone above and beyond to make Kirklees a cleaner and greener place to live and work.”

All the winners, runners-up and highly commended will be presented with their awards by the Mayor of Kirklees, Clr Nosheen Dad, at a special reception event at Dewsbury Town Hall on Wednesday, November 20.

Here’s the full shortlist.

Business Recycling Hero sponsored by The Grapevine Magazine

3M Buckley Innovation Centre in Huddersfield
The centre finds innovative ways to reduce waste such as cutting out single-use plastics, converting food waste into bioenergy, donating unused furniture to charities, using a rainwater harvesting system and more.

BioBax Ltd in Skelmanthorpe
BioBax reuses, reduces and recycles by using waste shredded cardboard to replace bubble wrap. They also use water-based paper tape for sealing packages – an eco-friendly alternative to conventional tape – which is recyclable and biodegradable.

Grow Refill in Skelmanthorpe
Grow Refill is a refill store and coffee shop that has not only eliminated the need for single-use plastics within its own operations but also acts as a central point for recycling hard-to-recycle materials. Their enthusiasm and encouragement to make small sustainable changes is inspirational in the local community.

Recycling Hero sponsored by SUEZ

Karen Hill from Slaithwaite
Karen has set up numerous collection and recycling points in the community, including Nields Academy Primary School and The Ark Church in Slaithwaite. She also supports Nields Academy with their recycling garden which she helped to establish and encourages communities to collect items that can be remade into something else.

Sue Bowyer from Kirkheaton
Sue has been running the One Stop Recycling Hub in Kirkheaton for many years to encourage the community to recycle hard-to-recycle items including used stamps, old coins, printer cartridges, plastic milk bottle tops, mobile phones and more. She regularly reports on the Yetton Together website, inspiring the community to get involved with recycling.

Sylvia Pearson, of Huddersfield
Sylvia uses her creativity to engage and educate children and the community to reduce waste through school lessons, after-school clubs and evening sessions. She uses recyclable items to create beautiful works of art and shows children and adults that being creative does not have to be expensive.

School Recycling Hero sponsored by Leafield Environmental

Nields Academy primary school in Slaithwaite
Nields Academy has recycled over a tonne of hard-to-recycle items, including more than 21,000 pens, and use food scraps to feed their tiger worms, creating compost in the school garden.

Scapegoat Hill J&I School
Scapegoat Hill encourages pupils and the wider community to donate cans to be recycled. Children act as environmental managers to monitor recycling bins for single-use plastics, ensure taps and lights are turned off and litter pick around the grounds. They also have a school garden with various eco-initiatives including composters and water butts.

Wilberlee J&I School in Slaithwaite
Wilberlee pupils took part in a sponsored stomp in the community, litter picking along the way. They placed recycling bins in each classroom, have a banner to encourage cars to slow down to make the air outside the school cleaner and the roads safer and have formed a gardening club to clean up their woodland area.

Young Recycling Hero sponsored by Revive Kirklees

Four-year-old twins Arlo-Mae and Eadie-Rae MacDonald from Heckmondwike
Arlo-Mae and Eadie-Rae go out litter picking in their local area at least once a week, collecting lots of recyclable materials and learning the importance of caring for the environment.

Five-year-old Henry Pitts from Cleckheaton
Upset at seeing his local park full of litter, Henry went out litter picking every day during the school holidays collecting bin bags full of litter and recyclables.

Sienna McLeod, aged 13, from Dewsbury
Sienna has demonstrated an ongoing dedication to reducing, reusing and recycling waste. She has learned new skills to upcycle and repurpose old worn-out textiles, cardboard, plastics and other materials, giving them a practical use.

People’s Choice Award sponsored by MAH Expediting and Inspection Services LTD

People have been able to vote for their favourite hero from the other four categories who will win the People’s Choice Award. Voting has now closed.

Written by ANDY HIRST who runs his own Yorkshire freelance journalism agency AH! PR (https://ah-pr.com/) specialising in press releases, blogging, website content, copywriting and ghost-writing autobiographies.