Recycling and waste handling specialist Recycling Lives has a new team leading sustainability and social value within the national waste recycling business.
Barry Flanagan is the company’s Sustainability Manager with primary responsibility for maintaining social value focus as the company transitions to becoming a circular economy leader. He is working with newly appointed Social Projects Manager Andrew Wright to define the ESG (environmental, social & governance) value of the company’s operations, and extend the commitment to the offender rehabilitation, food redistribution and other social value initiatives that have made Recycling Lives a benchmark for caring businesses.
The new management team at Recycling Lives is on track to substantially grow the business by investing in both its people and innovative processes across the 18 sites operated by the company in the UK.
The 15-acre Recycling Park in Preston is the flagship facility for Recycling Lives and currently leads on both innovation and social value programmes. But the aim is to roll out that ethos and engage more effectively with all 500 of the company’s employees at its facilities across the UK so that they can all embrace the evolution of the company.
Barry moved over from the Recycling Lives Charity where for five years he was head of rehabilitation programmes. He holds a commendation from the Butler Trust for his inspirational leadership of teams transforming the lives of prisoners at HMP Recycling Lives Academies within seven prisons and is committed to redefining social value generated by the company.
Andrew has worked in the biomass energy sector leading on ESG issues, experience which will be valuable as Recycling Lives transitions towards a sustainable circular economy model. A qualified counsellor, he has also previously fulfilled a range of roles with drug and alcohol rehabilitation initiatives and worked with offenders and young people within social services and residential care.
Andrew first met Barry by enlisting the support of Recycling Lives for vulnerable individuals and is now looking forward to helping to expand the company’s social value strategy.
Barry Flanagan, Recycling Lives Sustainability Manager explains:
“Our transition to become a leading circular economy business will affect every aspect of the company. For example, we are currently at the forefront of the industry in the way we depollute and recycle up to 130,000 motor vehicles every year, how we extract value from other waste streams to re-use and recycle metals and other materials, and in our innovation projects to further reduce waste to landfill and create sustainable energy.
As we improve and innovate to extend our core business, we also want to improve and extend the social value programmes. We will continue to work within the criminal justice sector to give people the opportunity to change the direction of their lives by providing jobs and the chance to rebuild their futures. But we are also developing other strategies to deliver positive impact and, in the case of young people, intervene before they become involved in the justice system.
Our aim is to create initiatives that benefit not just the individuals involved but society as a whole – through our sustainable environmental work and social programmes. All of this will bring the company and the charity closer together and involve people at all of our sites in fulfilling activity that can change for the better the world in which we live.”
For more information go to www.recyclinglives.com
