Winners announced for the 2024 Recoup Awards

UK’s charitable independent authority on plastics recycling, Recoup have announced the winners of this year's awards. Taking place the evening before the Recoup Conference, the awards generated interest from across the plastics resources and recycling value chain with strong entries received for all categories. 

Presented by Stuart Foster, CEO at Recoup, the first winner announced was for the ‘Best Innovation in Equipment or Technology’ award which was presented to Polytag and Ocado Retail for their ‘Rewards for Recycling’ initiative. This initiative encourages recycling by giving Ocado customers the opportunity to claim 20p rewards for recycling their own-brand two and four-pint milk bottles by using Polytags QR codes. 

The winner of the second award for ‘Best Plastic Product Development for Recyclability or Re-Use’ was presented to Berry Global for its partnership with Abel & Cole, a pioneer in sustainable food delivery, to supply bottles for its Club Zero Refillable Milk delivery service. The new polypropylene (PP) bottles can be refilled up to 16 times before being recycled, reducing the carbon footprint of single-use milk bottles by half. 

The third winner announced was for the ‘Recycled Plastic Product of the Year’ award which was presented to Morph Bricks. This is a closed loop modular construction system turning plastic waste into fully adaptable furniture and fit-out solutions that can be repurposed and re-engineered multiple times. 

Nominated by the team at Recoup, the Award of Recognition went to Jim Armstrong, chairman of the Recoup Board. Jim has provided help and support across many different activities within the team and for Recoup members over the past year. His unwavering passion in the pursuit of plastic circularity in the UK and internationally is recognized by many.    

The Recoup Awards was followed by the Recoup Conference. Throughout the day a number of speakers identified that many of the challenges and opportunities are well understood and we now collectively have to move forward within the context of new policy developments and environmental expectations both in the UK and globally. There was also agreement that things aren’t happening fast enough, and the value chain really needs to work together to make progress quicker and better than previously. The role of the consumer was also a common theme throughout the day, both in terms of their role in delivering change, and in how we bring them on the sustainable plastic journey. 

Stuart Foster, CEO of Recoup, commented: ‘With continued focus on the policy and practical aspects of plastics and wider climate and sustainability issues, the day was genuinely interesting and very timely around a range of priority areas. Once again the Recoup conference and dinner was a resounding success, I would like to thank all the speakers, delegates, exhibitors, and awards entrants for their involvement and support.’