Cheshire West Recycling (CWR) has been shortlisted in two categories at the 2026 Awards for Excellence in Recycling and Waste Management, recognising innovation, operational excellence and positive impact across the sector.
The shortlisted entries acknowledge CWR’s commitment to improving frontline safety during severe winter weather and the wider social value created by CWR through employment, procurement and community initiatives.
- Category: Health & Safety Initiative of the Year
Protecting Crews, Protecting Communities: A Staff-Led Response to Extreme Winter Risk
The nomination in this category recognises improvements introduced following a series of winter slip incidents in early 2025. Investigations found that the foremost residual risk occurred when crews were navigating untreated private surfaces, particularly while carrying out assisted collections to support the borough’s most vulnerable residents.
Through CWR’s staff-led Health, Safety, Environment and Quality (HSEQ) Committee, frontline teams reviewed the incidents and worked with suppliers to identify practical solutions. Operational trials led to the introduction of reusable ice and snow grips designed to improve traction during icy conditions.
The grips were deployed during several severe weather days in January 2026. During these periods, there were no RIDDOR incidents, trips or slip-related injuries associated with icy conditions, with the service maintaining its right-first-time success rate of over 99.8%, including assisted collections and rural rounds.
The initiative demonstrates how learning from incidents and working with frontline teams can deliver practical safety improvements and enables CWR to maintain essential services for residents in the borough.
- Category: Social Value within a Community
The Elevate Programme: Delivering Social Impact Through Waste and Recycling Services
CWR has also been shortlisted for its Elevate Programme, which brings together the organisation’s social value activity delivered through its waste, recycling and fleet services.
In 2025 alone, the programme generated around £25 million of measurable social value, reflecting CWR’s approach to embedding community impact within everyday service delivery.
Over the past two years, 95 individuals previously unemployed or facing barriers to work have been recruited into operational roles, including young people previously classified as NEET, care leavers, veterans, disabled people and prison leavers.
CWR’s workforce remains strongly local, with 92.6% of employees living within the borough, while procurement practices support regional businesses, with 72% of supplier spend directed within 30 miles and 76% to SMEs.
Community activity linked to CWR’s services also includes 156 hours of employability support and the redistribution of 32,978 food items to local organisations that support families in need.
Nominations in these two categories highlight how operational delivery within waste and recycling services can support wider council and community priorities, from protecting frontline crews to delivering efficient services and quantifiable benefits for local people.
Through its work on behalf of Cheshire West and Chester Council, CWR continues to deliver measurable environmental and social outcomes for the borough and its residents.
The Awards for Excellence in Recycling and Waste Management take place on 13 May 2026 at The Grosvenor in London.
For more information about the categories and shortlisted nominations, please visit: www.awardsforexcellence.co.uk.
