Mike Penning, the Member of Parliament for Hemel Hempstead visited specialist collections, clearance and recycling company, Waste King.

While there, he found out about Waste King's many environmentally-friendly waste and recycling initiatives and congratulated the company and its staff on their award-winning environmentally friendly policies and business strategy.

Among these is a recycling point for clothes and shoes, which has proved so popular that it's been filled - and emptied - over 50 times in the last year. This has helped to raise funds for Waste King's chosen charities of the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and the Salvation Army.

Waste King has also installed a 'bank' for unwanted used books, DVDs and so on. The proceeds from this recycling activity have also gone to the BHF.

During his conducted tour of Waste King's premises, on the Frogmore Industrial Estate near Two Waters, Hemel Hempstead, Mr Penning commented: "It's great to see Waste King playing its part to protect the environment for future generations, make our local economy more environmentally sustainable and improve the quality of life and well-being.

"I've been impressed by the commitment and dedication of the staff - led by the company's directors, Glenn Currie and Andy Cattigan - to do as much as possible to protect and enhance our environment through waste collection and recycling."

Last June, Waste King won a 'Green Apple Award' in a national campaign to find Britain's greenest companies. The company was also awarded the 'Silver Star' by the National Recycling Stars Scheme - in recognition of the company's commitment to increasing the amount of waste the company recycles and to improving the environmental awareness of its staff.

Waste King was judged on its recycling achievements according to a range of criteria which are designed to assess not only an organisation's percentage of waste recycled but also the overall commitment and engagement of its staff in implementing environmental initiatives.

Waste King's managing director, Glenn Currie, commented: "We were delighted to receive recognition for our 'green' efforts in these two awards - and to receive further recognition by having a visit from our local MP - but the real benefit for our environment is that Waste King guarantees to recycle at least 85 per cent of all the waste it collects."

He added: "I'm pleased to say that consistently, for the last six months or so, we've been able to exceed that figure. As part of our corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy, we want to promote the benefits of recycling not just in environmental terms - helpful though that is - but also in terms of directly benefiting people, through the work of our chosen charities."

Waste King's recycling and waste collection services include house, garden and garage clearance, wait and load services, waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) collections and site waste management plans (SWMP). The company also offers confidential document destruction.

Photo: (Top) Glenn Currie, Mike Penning MP and Andy Cattigan in Waste King’s offices, in front of some of Waste King’s Awards and Certificates and (Bottom) touring the premises.

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