SWRnewstar announced that it has won the Waste2Zero Best Waste Project Communication & Stakeholder Engagement Award in partnership with its customer Bristol Airport.
Bristol Airport was presented with the award following the work that had been completed to positively change the mindset and processes regarding waste disposal at the airport in partnership with SWRnewstar. This partnership began in January 2016 when Bristol Airport undertook an assessment of its waste management practices. This highlighted that while diversion from landfill was very high, onsite recycling levels were low at around 17 percent. Another area of improvement highlighted was the number of various on-site business partners using the waste disposal facilities whilst not having the same consistent approach. This was something that SWRnewstar worked particularly hard to address.
Phil Holder, head of operations support, Bristol Airport, commented, “It was important for us to work with a partner that could use their expertise in waste management to implement best practice and actively engage with all business partners within the airport to explain the importance of the waste segregation and to work with each concession to set up a system that worked for them. There is no doubt that this level of communication is what helped to enable us to win the Waste2Zero award for 2017.”
As the project was a multi stakeholder activity it was important that it was outlined to all parties what was trying to be achieved at the airport at the outset, the timescales involved and what would be required of them. SWRnewstar ensured each party was provided with the right level of support and resource to achieve this and as a result the stakeholder engagement that the airport experienced during the initial period was phenomenal with glass recycling increasing by 120% and food recycling rising from zero to 3 tonnes per month during the first six months after engagement initiatives went live
The successes didn’t stop there, since the project started in 2016 Bristol Airport has been able to improve its overall recycling numbers from around 17 percent to an impressive 47 percent, with the airport continuing to grow in passenger numbers of over 10 percent per year.
There is now at least a weekly engagement between the recycling officers and the stakeholders to look for ways to improve segregation, and SWRnewstar and Bristol Airport Operations meet monthly to report on progress and discuss strategy on new recycling initiatives.
Phil Holder, Bristol Airport, concludes, “We are really looking forward to continuing our waste transformation and hope to be recognised through other awards in the future. The feedback and engagement we have seen from all the stakeholders is now excellent, with everyone constantly looking at how they can improve and implement new ways to segregate waste. This is a massive step in the right direction for all involved and we are excited to see how this will further mature into 2018.”
