Wastecycle Celebrates 20th Anniversary
Wastecycle, the East Midlands leading resource management and waste recycling company, brought together its longest-serving member of staff and most loyal customer to celebrate its 20th anniversary last week (Tuesday 6th March).
The company that was founded by Mike Shearstone and Paul Needham in 1998 marked its 20th birthday with coffee and a giant cake served up to all its employees.
Mr Needham was joined by the company’s first and longest serving employee Richard Ashby and Andy and Peter Stephens from customer John A Stephens, which has worked with Wastecycle since day one.
Wastecycle employed just five people in its early days. Today, Wastecycle's team of 320 people handle over 500,000 tonnes of material through its Leicester and Nottingham recycling facilities each year. The company which has an annual turnover in excess of £44 million, recycles or recovers 98% of the waste it collects.
"We have enjoyed tremendous growth in the last twenty years, and are really proud of how the business has developed in that time," says Mr Needham. "We set out to make a difference to our customers by recycling their waste and passing on the cost savings. We wanted to help them reduce their impact on the environment byrecycling their waste into sustainable recycled products rather than landfilling. During the last 20 years we have diverted over 5 million tonnes of waste from landfill.
“At the same time, we wanted to help our customers save money on their waste management costs through waste minimisation in addition to recycling to achieve environmental best practice. We’ve certainly exceeded our initial expectations in 1998, and our four sites are now busier than ever!
"We work with hundreds of organisations and employ 320 people, but we are not resting on our laurels and will continue to invest and develop innovative recycling solutions to increase the sustainabilty of our recycled products. The change in ownership in May last year will continue to provide opportunities for Wastecycle’s growth and development, benefitting our customers across the East Midlands and beyond."
Wastecycle's first employee, Richard Ashby was given the honour of cutting the company's birthday cake. "I've seen a lot of changes since I started working here," he said. "I've seen the company grow from one small site to its current 20 acre resource management and recovery park in Nottingham. I've seen us expand into Leicester and the investment of millions of pounds into new vehicles and equipment. I've seen a lot of people join the company. I'm not quite ready for retirement, so I guess I will see a lot more change as we continue to grow. Wastecycle is a fantastic company to work for, and I'm sure everyone is really proud to celebrate its 20th anniversary."
Peter Stephens of John A Stephens is pleased to be associated with a company that has maintained its high-quality customer service even though it has grown into a multi-million pound operation. "We've been pleased to see Wastecycle grow and they've helped us reduce our costs and lessen our impact on the environment. What has been really impressive is that the level of customer service and the quality of the advice we receive has increased as the business has grown. That doesn't always happen. I'm very pleased for Paul and his team. Here's to the next 20 years!"