East Northants Council and its waste team shortlisted for top recycling award

East Northants Council and its waste and recycling partner FCC Environment have reached the finals of the 2020 LetsRecycle Awards for Excellence for spreading some sunshine during lockdown.

Covid-19 has been challenging for many, including East Northants' waste collection and household waste recycling centre (HWRC) crews.

Their efforts have now been recognised by being shortlisted in LetsRecycle’s special award category for ‘Individual or team contribution in response to the coronavirus pandemic’.

The award entry showcases East Northants' partnership with FCC Environment and how their work for the communities they serve has shone through.

Covering an area of more than 500 sq km from Rushden to Easton-on-the-Hill, and with about 600 calls a week and 200 requests relating to waste management services, East Northants' waste management team faced unprecedented challenges when Covid-19 restrictions were implemented.

The team pulled together to ensure they maintained their normal high standard services for waste, recycling, cleansing grounds maintenance, environmental enforcement dog wardens and pest control services for the benefit of the 41,5000 households they serve across East Northants.

They moved quickly to find even more agile work methods – including customising a mission-critical app for mapping, routing and displaying work geographically for team members to use remotely rather than needing their usual face-to-face meetings to assign and oversee workloads.

By integrating the app with Google Maps, job directions are clear and road-traffic information is current – bringing both time- and cost-efficiencies for the team.

Other tech-savvy initiatives developed by the waste management team during lockdown helped tackle fly-tipping, enabling them to easily pinpoint and find locations to deal with the issue quickly.

With community spirit stronger than ever in East Northants during lockdown, and inspired by the overwhelming number of heartfelt messages of praise, good wishes and colourful drawings thanking them for being 'true heroes' for the community in the face of Covid-19, the waste management team wanted to ‘Spread Some Sunshine’ for residents.

Cllr Steven North, leader of East Northants Council, said: “At the beginning of lockdown, we teamed up with FCC Environment to encourage children to pick up their pens and pencils to make colourful pictures for our hard working bin crews, in return for sunflower seeds that could grow and spread some sunshine.

“Everyone at ENC has worked hard since the end of March, balancing their day-to-day work alongside supporting the council’s coronavirus response and the waste team have been no exception.

“From the bin crew dressing up as sunflowers to ENC waste officers adapting to, and discovering, new digital ways of working, this year has been unprecedented.

"We are proud of the work that ENC and FCC Environment have been able to achieve, despite the wider situation.”

The waste crews fully embraced their fun side with the competition, with ‘Phil and Len the Sunflower Men’ making a special guest appearance on the collection rounds to encourage people to take part.

The waste management team also worked hard to ensure that the local community remained resilient to Covid-19.

The team supported the local crisis response, delivering personal protective equipment, information leaflets and other key items to volunteers to distribute within the community.

During lockdown, waste management officers continued to provide 'in the field' support to resident enquiries, ranging from dealing with the enforcement of those committing environmental crime to assisting residents needing additional information regarding appropriate materials for recycling.

Such was their dedication and commitment that the team reported 100 percent ‘business as usual’ services – and only two self-isolation events among a staff of 75.

FCC Environment’s Ian Mortimer said: “We are delighted to be shortlisted for this prestigious award, reflecting our partnership with East Northamptonshire and the dedication and efforts shown during lockdown to support the local community and spread some sunshine for people during these difficult times.”

The winner of the award will be announced in November during a socially distanced ceremony in London.

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