LARAC's Colin Kirkby has been rewarded for his services to waste with a MBE in the 2013 Queen's Birthday Honours.

The Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee’s (LARAC) Colin Kirkby has been awarded an MBE for services to the environment and his community in the Queen’s Birthday Honours this year.

An established member of the recycling sector, LARAC Executive Officer Kirkby started his waste career when, seeing an opportunity to conserve resources, he set up a recycling scheme in his neighbourhood in 1987. Presteigne Recycling Scheme reached a recycling rate of 30 per cent in 1994 and put over £40,000 back into the community. Kirkby then became the Recycling Officer for Cardiff City Council in 1989, as part of the Friends of the Earth Recycling City Project, and introduced the ‘Green Bag’ collection scheme, one of the first co-mingled kerbside collection services in the UK.

In 2001, he became the Executive Officer for LARAC, a committee formed in 1985 to represent local government recycling officers on recycling and waste management issues. When interviewed in the Loop (issue 34, Spring 2011) by Resource Media, Colin modestly said: "I'm an opportunist, not a planner."

He also worked in conjunction with Cwm Harry Land Trust for Presteigne Town Council to put in a bid in 2009 to the Welsh Government for its Zero Waste fund for a one-year project for a community. It turned into a three-year project and got to a recycling rate of 74 per cent.

In addition, he is an active volunteer in his community. He started with the Town Council in 1987 and has been Mayor on five occasions, making him the longest-serving Town Councillor. Talking about his community work he said: "If we get our attitude towards our environment right, our attitude towards each other would come right as well."

LARAC Chair Joy Blizzard said of the news: "This must be one of the most well-deserved MBEs ever presented. Colin's list of volunteer activities have not only been recycling related, but so many are deeply embedded in his local community. Tree planting, music festivals, zero waste projects, acquiring meadows for the town, mowing, bulb planting, fundraising, being Mayor more times than Dick Whittington and, of course, putting out the occasional fire… how he finds time to support his local hostelry by having an occasional pint I'll never know! It has been a privilege for me to work with Colin for over a decade and LARAC has been extremely fortunate to have snapped up his services when we had the chance. Congratulations!"

Visit the LARAC website to learn more.