The North East's largest waste management firm has awarded a Mayor's charity with a substantial donation, after pledging £1 for every tonne of waste the council recycles with them.
Durham-based Premier Waste Management raised £1000 by recycling 1000 tonnes of Sedgefield Borough Council's waste, as part of their unique 'Kerb-It' service. The company aims to use these charitable donations as an incentive to encourage residents in areas served by the 'Kerb-It' service to save the environment by recycling.
Good causes were invited to appeal to Premier for funding and help raise the profile of the benefits of recycling.
Sedgefield Borough Council will divide the donation equally between two of the Mayor of Sedgefield's individual charities, which include, Little Hands – a project in Kenya that has built and now maintains a children's school, and The Learning Library – a charity providing toys and learning equipment to children with special needs.
Gary Whitehead, Commercial Director at Premier Waste Management said: "Each year the average household produces one tonne of waste. Last year Premier Waste Management recycled 4,608 tonnes of waste from Sedgefield alone, which is the equivalent of recycling all the waste from 4,608 homes and diverting it from landfill.
"Premier Waste Management is committed to reducing the environmental impact of waste and we hope that our Kerb-It scheme will continue to play a major role in helping our region's councils to recycle household waste wherever possible.
"As a company we take pleasure in donating to worthy causes such as Sedgefield's chosen charities, as a reward for helping to protect the environment."
Lucy Hovvels, Mayor of Sedgefield said: "The charities that we have chosen to donate to will benefit immensely from our recycling efforts. We are extremely grateful to Premier for the donation and it's generosity like this that will help many children from our region and beyond."
Premier's Kerb-It service currently operates in the Sedgefield area along with over 410,000 homes across the rest of the region, in a recycling operation that collects paper, glass and cans in dedicated recycling boxes.
Premier recycles the region's household waste through a kerb-side collection by specialist HGV vehicles, it is then sorted by trained operators and sent to reprocessors to be recycled back into new newspapers, glass containers and metal products.
A wide range of organisations have benefited, including Tiny Lives – the regional premature baby charity, the Great North Air Ambulance, the NSPCC, the Salvation Army and many of the regions hospices.
For further information on Premier Waste Management call 0191 3844000 or visit www.premierwaste.com
The 100,000 tonnes of 'waste' collected by Kerb-it includes 67,000 tonnes of paper, 28,000 tonnes of glass and 5,000 tonnes of steel and aluminium cans.