The Pakman Awards, powered by Repak, are back for 2022. Now in it's eighth year, the awards recognise excellence in recycling and waste management among businesses, organisations communities and individuals in Ireland. This year's awards will take place on 28th October in the stylish setting of the Marker Hotel in Dublin’s Grand Canal Quay.
The revered awards are widely regarded as the highest honour that can be won in Ireland’s environmental sector. Entrants are required to submit examples of their environmental efforts, which are separated into specific categories including the Waste Prevention Award, Community Recycling Initiative of The Year, Environmental Education & Awareness Initiative of the Year and many more.
Last year Irish Packaging Recycling (IPR) were recipients of the overall award, winning the Overall Pakman Award for its substantial contribution to Ireland reaching its EU-set packaging recycling targets. IPR also won Waste Recycling and Recovery Facility of the Year. Contributing to its success, in 2020, IPR invested €2 million upgrading the plastics and metals sorting line at its Co. Dublin plant, which is the largest recycling facility of its kind in Ireland. IPR also recovered 2,500 tonnes of aluminium and plastics through upgrading its facilities, an achievement that perfectly aligns with the initiatives that the Pakman Awards look to acknowledge.
Tesco Ireland was named as Business Recycling Champion 2021. The retailer's ESG strategy is guided by ambitious science-based targets. When it comes to packaging plans, Tesco uses the 'Four Rs’ approach - removing all non-recyclable and hard-to-recycle materials, reducing packaging where possible, looking for opportunities to reuse packaging and ensuring that all packaging is recyclable. To date, Tesco has removed 359 tonnes of PVC, 40 tonnes of polystyrene materials and 550 tonnes of non-recyclable black plastic from product packaging every year. Tesco has also donated over 15 million meals to FoodCloud, saving over 20,600 tonnes of carbon from the waste process. With such impressive statistics, the bar for the 2022 award-hopefuls is highly set.
Good Fish won Waste Prevention Business Award 2021. With protecting the environment being a key pillar and ethos of the family-run fish processor and retailer, Good Fish works with its staff, suppliers, community and key stakeholders to achieve exactly that. Between 2017 and 2020, Good Fish reduced its waste by 18% which is all the more impressive considering the business still managed to grow by 15% during that time. Since 2015, Good Fish has reduced energy consumption by 17% and in January 2020, removed polystyrene from all packaging, amounting to over 10 tonnes each year no longer being used
Other winners on the night included Ulster Tyres having won Tyre Champion and Repak Members Coca Cola, Lidl and Aldi were recognised in the Plastic Pledge category for their commitment as part of the Repak Members Plastic Pledge, to reduce plastic packaging and increase the recyclability of their packaging.
This year’s proud sponsors are made up of AMCS Resource Technology, the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, WEEE Ireland and many more. Speaking about the awards, Conor Dowd from AMCS said: "We are delighted to sponsor the Pakman Awards as it provides a platform to recognise and reward all this effort, investment and innovation in this area which ultimately protects our environment".
This year's proud sponsors are made up of the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, AMCS Resource Technology, WEEE Ireland and many more. Speaking about the awards, Conor Dowd from AMCS said: "We are delighted to sponsor the Pakman Awards as it provides a platform to recognise and reward all this effort, investment and innovation in this area which ultimately protects our environment".
The complete list of finalists for the 2022 Pakman Awards are:
Battery and WEEE Champion – sponsored by European Recycling Platform
- Association of Electrical Wholesalers
- Currys Ireland
- Lidl Ireland GmbH
Business Recycling Champion - sponsored by WEEE Ireland
- CJ Sheeran Limited
- Swords Pavilions
- The Imperial Hotel Cork
Community Recycling Initiative – sponsored by The Department of Environment, Climate and Communications
- Dillon Waste Unlimited Company
- Joe Bonner
- Relove Paint - Cork County Council & Cork City Council
Environmental Education and Awareness Initiative - sponsored by Environmental Protection Agency
- Eastern-Midlands Regional Waste Management Plan Office
- Castletroy College
- National Spring Clean
Innovation in Waste Resource Products or Services - sponsored by Enviroguide Consulting
- McCulla (Ireland) Ltd
- Rebox
- Soltec (Ireland) Ltd
Plastic Pledge Award - sponsored by Repak
- ALDI Ireland
- ABP Food Group
- Brown Thomas Arnotts
- Coca-Cola HBC Ireland and Northern Ireland
- Irish Distillers Pernod Ricard
- Lidl Ireland GmbH
- Musgrave
- NPP Group Ltd
- Primark Limited
Tyre Champion - sponsored by Circol ELT
- Continental Tyre Group Ltd
- Discount Tyres
- Toyota Ireland
Waste Recovery Operator – Household and Commercial - sponsored by The Irish Waste Management Association
- Enva Ireland Limited
- KeyWaste Management Ltd
- Panda Green
Waste Prevention Award - sponsored by Dublin Waste to Energy
- CJ Sheeran Limited
- Palm Free (Zero Waste) Irish Soap Ltd
- Skerries Tidy Towns Committee
Waste Recycling and Recovery Facility - sponsored by AMCS Resource Technology
- Glassco Recycling Ltd
- Limerick Polymers Production
- Re-gen Waste Ltd
The 2022 Pakman Awards take place on 28th October, where the efforts of Ireland’s most accomplished leaders in recycling and waste management will be recognised. Learn more at pakman.ie.
