Usel have been awarded a top award at a glittering award ceremony on Wednesday evening.
Demonstrating excellence in enabling a high quality, high value end market product from recycled materials, the company was presented with the “Circular Economy / Leadership in Market Development for Recycled/Recovered Material” award, sponsored by Mercedes Benz Truck & Van NI and CP Davidson.
Scott Jackson (Head Of Recycling and Manufacturing) from USEL accepted the award during a glittering ceremony, compered by television and radio sports presenter Adrian Logan, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in South Belfast which was attended by hundreds of guests and leading figures from the waste management, energy and environmental sectors.
Organised by the Hillsborough based publishers of Sustainable Ireland, the event, with 15 separate categories, is widely regarded as Ireland’s premier platform of recognition for those operating across all sectors of the industry.
Commented the awards judges: “USEL has made great strides in advancing the case for the circular economy in Northern Ireland to be a driver of innovation, employment and economic growth. This is evident in becoming leaders in producing a range of added-value products from difficult to recycle goods, such as end-of-life mattresses, transforming them into new steel, soundproofing materials, animal bedding and fabrics used in making new mattresses.”
Two years ago, USEL launched a recycling operation at its Belfast base to remove mattresses from landfill and recycle the internal components. This has resulted in USEL becoming a leading contributor to the Circular Economy within Northern Ireland.
It is the only successful mattress recycling facility in the Province and one of only three in Ireland and its recycling operations resulted in the removal of over 600 tonnes of waste diverted from landfill in 2017.
USEL has also been recognised as International Global Green Apple Winner 2017 for Environmental Best Practice. The only other organisation ever to win this award in Northern Ireland was NI Water. The organisation has seen rapid growth in the last 12 months. In 2016 it recycled over 13,000 mattresses and increased this to 22,000 in 2017. It is forecasting to do over 35,000 mattresses in 2018. It aims to divert over 1000 tonnes of waste from landfill in 2018/19.
In addition to the many environmental benefits, USEL has also been able to create greater employment opportunities for people with disabilities and health related conditions within its recycling operations.
