Recycling firm Casepak has announced that its ‘Chairman, founder and inspiration’, George Smith, passed away on Tuesday (24 September) at home in Leicester. Smith had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease two years ago.

Born in Leicester in 1936, George Albert Edward Smith first entered the resource and recycling industry after working at shoe company, Vinaflex. Here, Smith made soles for shoes before working his way up to become manager. As a shoe company, Vinaflex used large amounts of cartons, and to save expense, Smith started to buy second-hand cartons. It was by doing this that Smith discovered a gap in the market, and in 1972 launched his own second-hand carton business, Casepak.

Employing seven people at first, the business quickly grew and branched out into recycling unusable cartons at their end-of-life. It now employs over 200 people and its activities include collecting, sorting and trading a range of recovered materials from both commercial and household collections.

In 1997, Casepak moved to a purpose-built site in Enderby, processing 144,000 tonnes of recycled material every year. Most recently, Smith oversaw the design and development of a £21-million materials recycling facility (MRF), capable of processing 150,000 tonnes per annum. The MRF was officially opened by then Recycling Minister, Lord Taylor of Holbeach, in 2012. Smith’s eight children all still work in the business.

A key member of the Leicester community, Smith was known locally as ‘Bingo George’, after having established the town’s first bingo hall at the Corn Exchange in the 1960s.

George Smith’s funeral will be held at 2.45pm on Friday (4 October) at Leicester Cathedral (St. Martin’s) and afterwards at The Keith Weller Suite at Leicester City Football Club.

Read more about George Smith and Casepak.