Aluminium recycling firm Bryson Recycling named UK Social Enterprise of the Year

Bryson Recycling, headquartered in Belfast, has been named as the UK's Social Enterprise of the Year at the prestigious Private Business Awards.

Bryson Recycling was founded 25 years ago and the social enterprise initially began by collecting aluminium cans from public organizations and private homes. The company started with Cash for Cans scheme where it encouraged people to recycle aluminium drinks cans by providing accessible collection points at various locations. This soon spread across Northern Ireland with many youth and community groups, schools, business and individuals participating in the scheme. Between 1993 and 1999 over 6 million cans were collected each year. The company started operations outside Northern Ireland in 2012-13.

Bryson recycling is now the largest social enterprise recycler in the UK. The company now recycles waste materials from 60 per cent of the homes in Northern Ireland in collaboration with local councils in eight recycling centres in Co Donegal and Wales.

Bryson Group CEO, John McMullan who would be officially retiring from his post in a few days received the award on stage and described it as a moment to savour.

“I am so proud of the team who have worked with me to achieve this success. Together we have fundamentally changed behaviours regarding recycling. I think a lot of it is down to being early adopters of new technologies which helped us to improve productivity, understand participation levels and work to improve them," he said.

He added that Bryson Recycling has been able to create as many as 800 jobs at entry-level contributing towards the development of the local communities but also the local economy.”

Janette Jones, PwC Northern Ireland partner and private business leader added:

“This is a richly deserved award for John and his team, and will boost the value of social enterprises here in the future."