The Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee (LARAC) has announced this year’s shortlisted entries for its annual Celebration Awards.

According to LARAC, the annual awards, to be held at the East Midlands Conference Centre in Nottingham on 16 October, ‘recognise the hard work, dedication and achievements of local authority recycling officers, their teams and partners within the UK’.

Speaking of this year’s entrants, LARAC Chair, Joy Blizzard, said: "This year LARAC members have again upped their game and the quality of entries was high and made life difficult for the judging panel. It's a cracking shortlist."

The categories and shortlisted entries are as follows:

Best communications campaign of the year (sponsored by UPM): this award recognises the work undertaken by local authorities to convey ‘specific’ messages to groups within the local community or the local area as a whole.

Shortlisted entries are:

• Furniture Reuse Campaign, Surrey County Council
• Mission Impossible, Lewisham Council
• Recycle for London and West London Waste Authority

Best partnership award (sponsored by Viridor): this award is for the local authority that has worked best with one or more partners within the private or third sector, or with others such as resident groups.

Shortlisted entries are:

• Bright Sparks, London Borough of Islington
• Get it Out for Cardiff, Cardiff Council
• Transforming Surrey Street Market, Croydon Council

Best team of the year: this new award is for any local authority team, including front line staff, recycling teams, or teams set up to deliver short-term projects or to work with colleagues in other departments. It recognises ‘exceptional’ team work, facilitating ‘high levels of problem solving and communication, whilst going above and beyond what is expected of them’.

Shortlisted entries are:

• Aylesbury Vale District Council
• Chiltern District Council
• Croydon Council

Best waste minimisation or prevention project (sponsored by Repic): this award aims to highlight ‘successful’ projects, small or large, which have been instigated by local authority recycling officers to ‘reduce waste generation and/or prevent waste arising’.

Shortlisted entries are:

• North London Waste Authority: Waste Prevention Programme
• Hertfordshire County Council
• Merseyside and Halton Waste Partnership

Recycling officer of the year: this award recognises someone who has achieved higher levels of recycling or other activities, including education, campaigns and waste minimisation, whilst demonstrating ‘dedication’, ‘skills’, ‘flair and enthusiasm’.

Shortlisted entries are:

• James Messer, Scottish Border Council
• Joanna Dixon, Croydon Council
• Emma Cocksedge, Essex County Council

Best new idea: this award recognises a new idea, whether in service planning and delivery, marketing, communication, equipment and other areas, which has proved a ‘positive benefit’ in the delivery of recycling services within a local authority.

Shortlisted entries are:

• WEEE Events, South Norfolk District Council
• Electrical Items Lost Their Spark, Cherwell District Council
• Nappycycle, Cheshire West and Chester Council

Winners will be announced at the Celebration Awards ceremony on 16 October.