It’s been a big year for First Mile.
At the National Recycling Awards 2025, we were proud to take home Independent Operator of the Year, alongside two more awards that shine a light on the impact we’ve achieved with our customers and partners:
- Campaign of the Year: Commercially Led Project – Greenzone and Praxis
- Recycling Excellence – First Mile and ATG Entertainment
Each award recognises something we care deeply about: making recycling simple, building great partnerships, and proving that sustainability works best when it’s easy for people to take part.
From busy multi-use buildings to packed theatre foyers, these projects show what happens when collaboration, clear communication and smart design all come together. The result? Less waste, more recycling and real change for people, places and the planet.
Here’s how it all came together.
Making recycling easier for tenants
When you manage large, mixed-use buildings, recycling can be complicated. Different tenants, different waste streams and different levels of understanding can all make it harder to get right.
That was the challenge facing Praxis, a real estate company that manages almost 70 buildings across the UK. Recycling rates across its portfolio had levelled off at 49%, and contamination was costing time and money.
Greenzone, now part of First Mile, partnered with Praxis to change that. Together they designed Simplifying Recycling, Amplifying Impact: a campaign built around one simple idea: make recycling clear, straightforward and easy for tenants to get involved.
What needed to change?
- Confusing signage and bin layouts were leading to contamination.
- Tenants weren’t confident about what went where.
- Sites had very different needs, from retail to office to hospitality.
- New Simpler Recycling rules meant clearer separation was essential.
What the campaign delivered
- 20 interactive events across 12 months to engage tenants in person.
- Food caddies rolled out to 30 sites, supporting food-waste recycling.
- Clear, consistent signage designed for quick understanding.
- Digital content — blogs, newsletters and resources in tenant apps.
- A friendly, human identity called Meet Jo, inspired by Greenzone Key Account Manager Joanne Maidlow, who became the approachable face of the campaign.
What happened next?
- Recycling rates rose from 49% to 67% in a single year.
- 100% of waste diverted from landfill.
- 97.58% service success rate.
- Over 200 tenants took part in events, with thousands more reached online.
- The whole campaign cost just £7,625 to deliver.
It was a low-cost, high-impact success that showed how much can be achieved when people are part of the process.
The judges at the National Recycling Awards 2025 agreed, naming it Campaign of the Year: Commercially Led Project.
This collaboration is now a blueprint for large estates, showing that the right mix of engagement, clarity and partnership can transform recycling performance at scale.
Raising the curtain on better recycling at ATG Entertainment
Front of house waste can be notoriously tricky to manage. Hundreds of people pass through a theatre every night, juggling drinks, snacks and tickets, often unsure which bin to use.
That was the challenge ATG Entertainment faced across its 35 venues. High contamination rates and inconsistent bin layouts meant that even the best intentions weren’t turning into real recycling.
Working together, First Mile and ATG Entertainment designed a front of house system that was simple to use, clear to understand and backed by reliable data.
What needed fixing?
- Contamination at 85.81% across venues.
- Bin signage that wasn’t always easy to follow.
- Limited visibility of what was being recycled at each site.
What we did
- Over 100 custom-designed bins installed across 35 venues.
- Each bin featured colour-coded, icon-based labels showing common theatre items like plastic cups and paper programmes.
- Five national waste streams introduced – general waste, dry mixed recycling, food and coffee waste, glass and cardboard.
- Monthly audits and live tracking through the First Mile Portal so every venue could see progress.
- Staff training and cleaning team engagement to keep the system working day to day.
What changed?
- Contamination dropped from 85.81% to 8.01%.
- Front of house recycling increased from 8.53% to 68.35%.
- Estate wide recycling reached 70.21%, with potential to reach 91% as more streams are added.
- Zero waste to landfill across all sites.
- 98.98% collection reliability maintained nationwide.
The transformation didn’t stop there. Since the rollout, ATG has recycled more than 600 tonnes of material, saving around 487 tonnes of CO₂.
This collaboration won the Recycling Excellence award, recognised for its smart use of design, data and partnership.
Our partnership with ATG proves that when recycling is easy to understand and supported by the right people, it works. Even in the middle of a packed theatre foyer.
Celebrating consistency and innovation
This year also marked a proud moment for the whole First Mile team.
At the National Recycling Awards 2025, we were named Independent Operator of the Year for the second year running. This award recognises independent recycling providers who lead the way in innovation, reliability and measurable sustainability results: values that guide everything we do.
Why it matters
- Recognises our continued investment in new technology and smarter operations.
- Highlights our commitment to making recycling easy and accessible for every business.
- Celebrates the care, consistency and expertise that our teams deliver every day.
The award also reflects the strength of our partnerships. From large estates like Praxis to national entertainment venues like ATG, our focus stays the same: help every customer recycle more, waste less and work towards a cleaner future.
And it didn’t stop there. Just two days later, we were named B2B Business of the Year at the 2025 Growing Business Awards, recognising how we put our customers first and keep raising the bar for sustainability across the UK.
These achievements are a huge credit to our team and partners, whose hard work and collaboration continue to shape a simpler, smarter and more sustainable waste industry.
Looking ahead
This year’s awards are a perfect reminder of what can happen when people work together with a shared goal. Each win tells a story of teamwork, creativity and real progress towards a cleaner, more circular future.
Across the First Mile Group, we’ll keep building on this momentum. Our focus for the year ahead is simple:
- Keep improving recycling performance for every customer
- Invest in data, digital tools and low-carbon collections
- Grow partnerships that make sustainability easy to achieve
We’re proud of what our teams and customers have achieved together, but we are even more excited about what comes next.
If you’re looking to improve recycling across your business or want to explore how our award-winning approach could work for you, we’d love to help.
Get in touch to find out how First Mile can help your organisation recycle more, waste less and make a lasting difference for people and the planet.
