Telford-based Northwood – a leading manufacturer of professional paper hygiene and wiping products – has won a top award in the Foodservice Packaging Association (FPA) Awards. The business beat of stiff competition to take the ‘Environmental Sustainability’ trophy at the annual awards, which were held on 5 March. 

Celebrating innovation and excellence across foodservice and hospitality, the awards honour professionalism and best practice across the sector.  Northwood won the award for its Green Loop end to end recycling initiative, which was created to help customers lower their waste footprint by making it easier than ever before to recycle waste products in washrooms.

Picking up the award from comedian and actor Matt Lucas were Craig Williams, Northwood’s commercial director, and Paul King, Northwood’s CEO.

Paul King said: “The FPA Awards set the standard for excellence in the industry and we are incredibly proud to pick up the Environmental Sustainability award for Green Loop, which is the most comprehensive closed loop recycling service in the market.”

Craig Williams, added: “We are delighted to win this prestigious award, which recognises the hard work and dedication of the business to drive meaningful change and provide innovative solutions to support customer sustainability goals.”

The FPA Environmental Sustainability Award recognises firms that have developed solutions that help businesses across the sector to reduce their environmental impact and contribute positively to the environment.

The judges praised Northwood’s ‘Green Loop’ initiative for delivering a practical closed-loop recycling solution for washroom waste streams that are typically difficult to recycle. By collecting used paper towels, roll inserts and dispensers from customers and recycling them into new hygiene products through its UK paper mills, Northwood has created a scalable circular model with measurable environmental benefits, including significant carbon reductions. 

Green Loop is a full-circle service that focuses on recycling three elements – roll inserts, dispensers and used paper towels. All of these items are difficult to recycle in general waste streams, meaning they are more likely to end up incinerated or in landfill, which is not sustainable.

As the most comprehensive closed loop recycling service in the market, Northwood offers end users the opportunity to increase recycling rates and minimise their environmental impact. Fully embracing circularity, the Green Loop initiative collects paper from service users, where it is recycled through one of Northwood’s UK paper mills and then manufactured into new recycled paper hygiene products.

Northwood employs 850 people across nine UK sites with 250 people employed at Northwood’s headquarters on Stafford Park in Telford.

For further information, visit www.northwood.co.uk, or call 01952 236 930.