Why Enter

Entering the MRW National Recycling Awards puts your organisation in front of the people who matter the most - customers, peers, and industry leaders.

Being shortlisted or winning gives you the chance to:

  • Strengthen customer confidence by independently validating your expertise and performance.
  • Stand out from competitors in a crowded and fast-moving market.
  • Prove your commitment to best practice, innovation, and measurable impact in recycling and resource management.
  • Showcase your achievements to stakeholders, customers, and your own teams as a recognised industry leader.
  • Raise your profile locally and nationally, boosting visibility well beyond the event itself.
  • Build trust that drives growth, supporting new business and long-term customer relationships.
  • Inspire and motivate your team, rewarding hard work and celebrating success on a national stage.
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Entry process

There are categories to cater to every sector within the recycling industry, whether you represent a manufacturing company, recycling facility, consultancy, public sector organisation, or private entity. This presents a golden opportunity for you to gain recognition for your achievements while spotlighting your business's outstanding contributions to recycling, reuse, and waste reduction.

How to enter?

  • Your entry must relate to activity that’s taken place between 1 January 2025 – 26 June 2026
  • Read the entry criteria below 
  • Register your details online, you will receive an email, click on the link to validate your account, or add the validation code. You will need to do this before you can complete your entries
  • Submit your entry via the online entry form
  • Login at any time to finish your entry. If you forget your password, please use the reset password link on the login page.


How to enter: user guide

Learn how to easily submit your awards entry by watching this step-by-step video below.

Winning Entries

Publication

Winners will be published in the December 2026 issue of Materials Recycling World and displayed on the website. 

Awards ceremony

The National Recycling Awards ceremony will be held in London on the evening of 1 December at the Royal Lancaster Hotel, London. Everyone who enters is welcome to join us at the awards. However please note this is a paid-for event. 

How much does it cost to enter?

It is FREE to enter the awards. 

Top tips

This is your chance to tell your story. All good stories have a structure so remember to structure your entry along the following lines:

  • Beginning: Provide the judges with information on the challenges you have overcome and your unique approach to creating impact and measurable results
  • Middle: Back up your claims with data and real-world outcomes. Whether it's improved performance, cost savings, or sustainability achievements, show your success through clear metrics and examples
  • End: What makes you stand out from other organisations and why should you win?

To ensure that your submission is your best work, take a look at our hints and tips below before you start your entry:

  • Make a note of the deadline: you must submit your entry by 26 June 2026 so make sure you have this date in mind – write it in your diary or on your calendar, or set notifications on your phone to ensure you don't miss the chance to enter
  • Preparation is key: now that you know the deadline, allow yourself plenty of time to write, develop and submit your entry – coming back to it with a fresh pair of eyes can help you remember important details that may make the difference between being shortlisted and just missing out
  • Make the judges' job easy: write in clear, plain English, avoid too much jargon and use bullet points where appropriate to break up the text
  • Pay attention to grammar and spelling: poorly presented entries lack credibility so don't lose out on being shortlisted on something you could have easily avoided
  • Involve the right people: involve your team in developing the entry and consider asking colleagues outside of the project or initiative to review as they will often see the great work you do that you might overlook
  • Back up your entry: take advantage of the option to attach documents to support your entry with useful information that will help the judges to understand the impact of your work and career to date
  • Proofread, proofread, proofread: ask someone else, such as a colleague, friend or manager, to look through your entry before you submit. Often a fresh set of eyes that does not have detailed knowledge of the entry may suggest ways to clarify your submission

FAQs

Hopefully you'll find an answer to your question below. If not, please contact Muyiwa Adebiyi on +44 (0)203 953 2958 or email Muyiwa.Adebiyi@emap.com .

To view the criteria, create your account, or login with your email and password used to create your account if you have already done so. Select ‘Enter Now’ against the category you wish to view where the criteria will be displayed. If you wish to start your entry at this point any information you add will be autosaved and you can login to complete the rest of the entry at any time

Enter the email address and password that you used when you first started your entry on the log in page, you will then be taken through to your dashboard and will be able to continue your entry.

You can enter another category by selecting the category you wish to enter from the ‘ Categories ’ section.

Please contact Muyiwa Adebiyi on +44 (0)203 953 2958 or email Muyiwa.Adebiyi@emap.com and they will be able to help you with your entry.

Why is winning an award important to a business?

You only need to look at the reactions of the winners to see how important an award is. It demonstrates that you are doing the right thing, that you are making a difference. It shows that your peers think that what you are doing is award-winning and is worthy of recognition and in some cases duplication. I love that when the winners are announced the whole room is genuinely pleased for them.

JUDGE: Margaret Bates, Executive Director, Defra

Why is winning an award important to a business?

I think it’s good for team morale, but more importantly, it helps to establish that they are a leader and directs people to come and see them and talk about solutions they have and didn’t know how to solve. So they are leaders in the field and everyone needs good leadership.

JUDGE: Phillip Ward, Chair, RSA Sustainability Network

How do you think winning tonight can help your business in the future?

It’s just great to be recognised, we recycle so many units and collect them from customers all over the country, like universities and colleges. To be able to put those units back into schools and charities and the IT equipment we recycle, it’s just great to be recognised for the work that we do.

WINNER: Campaign of the Year (Over £10,000) – Currys

How do you think winning tonight can help your business in the future?

Winning tonight raises our profile and it also raises the profile of the risk associated with bin lifts – it’s a win-win for everybody.

WINNER: Innovation in Recycling Equipment and Vehicles - Changing behaviours to reduce risk – loading RCVs smarter, FCC Environment and Site Zone

How do you think winning tonight can help your business in the future?

It’s a great step forward for us, getting our product out there. It’s a new product and so the more awareness we have of it in the industry it’s fantastic.

WINNER: Recycled Product of the Year - Reusable Steel, EMR Reusable Steels

How do you think winning tonight can help your business in the future?

It’s a bonus isn’t it, you know what we do might rub off on others. We are lucky the council supports us in what we do. They’re absolutely brilliant and they do an amazing job for the Cornwall residents who really appreciate the above and beyond they do every day. They’re a fabulous team.

WINNER: Team of the Year – Biffa

How does it feel to have won an award?

Oh it’s just amazing, we didn’t expect to get this far. We were just so pleased to be here, we were so chuffed.

How does it feel to have won an award?

It’s amazing, it’s been such a great night. I’m really proud of this award.

WINNER: Rising Star – Phil Bisby, Polytag

How does it feel to have won an award?

It feels amazing, we’re thrilled. It’s lovely to be recognised for all the stuff you do.

WINNER: Recycling Excellence - Site Management - 8 Bishopsgate X Bywaters

How does it feel to have won an award?

Amazing, obviously you enter these awards not expecting to win. To win one is an absolute credit to Currys and DHL and the work we do in the background around recycling, driving innovation and trying to do all we can around recycling and reuse. The category was quite vast, we enter the award because we think what we do is great and to win is obviously amazing. We weren’t expecting it, but we’re obviously really pleased to win an award for recycling excellence.

WINNER: Recycling Excellence – Currys

How does it feel to have won an award?

Incredibly humbling. This is a testament to the power of excellence that Biffa supplies us in providing national security, this really is a team effort. We can’t do what we need to do without these guys working alongside us. It’s really unusual to have a private sector company that is so aligned to a public body such as ourselves involved in law enforcement, and I’m just incredibly grateful and humble by the professionalism and grit that these people provide us.

WINNER: Partnership Excellence – Public/Private sector - Border Force UK and Biffa Waste Services

How does it feel to have won an award?

A lot of hard work has gone into doing this and we’re all very pleased.

WINNER: Packaging Circular Economy Award - The Refill Coalition, GoUnpackaged, Aldi, Ocado, CHEP, Eden/Trade Fixtures, Digi, Berry

How does it feel to have won an award?

Proud, we’ve had a partnership in place now for 6 years. The award really reinforces what we’ve set out to do. All the goods are donated by residents of Greater Manchester, bought by residents in Greater Manchester and all the money that we raise goes to projects within Greater Manchester, so it’s been very successful. We’ve seen loads of great community groups run lots of great reuse and repair projects and it’s great to see them being run from money that’s raised through the reuse shops.

WINNER: Local Authority Success - R4GM Community Fund, Greater Manchester Combined Authority

How does it feel to have won an award?

It feels absolutely fabulous to have won this award in collaboration with FCC to make people safer.

WINNER: Innovation in Recycling Equipment and Vehicles - FCC Environment and Site Zone

How does it feel to have won an award?

We’re very proud of the work that we’ve done in pioneering closed-loop recycling of plastic ready meal trays. It’s great to be here tonight and be honoured for the work that the team has done, we’re very proud.

WINNER: Circular Economy Initiative - apetito and Wiltshire Farm Foods

How does it feel to have won an award?

Amazing, we’re just so proud that we can almost set the example and provide best practice to others in the industry.

WINNER: Campaign of the Year (up to £10,000) - Recipe for a Better Future, Azzurri Group & Novati