Kerbside recycling pioneer Geoff Wright passed away last month (11 February) at the age of 80.
Geoff is best known for his work at Leeds City Council, where he was an Environmental Health Officer and introduced one of the UK’s first kerbside recycling schemes, SORT.
The kerbside scheme was pre-trialled by Save Waste and Prosper (SWAP), an organisation with which Geoff was involved as a trustee from its origins in 1977 to encourage Leeds people to raise money for charity through recycling.
In May 1990, SWAP ran its ‘100 Households’ trial, which saw kerbside recycling trialled among 111 households for six weeks. The system was broken down into six material streams, which by the end of 1990 was lowered to four source-separated material streams upon the introduction of a larger scheme, serving 4,000 households. The scheme was backed by investment from the council, allowing Geoff to set up a materials recovery facility (MRF) and purchase wheelie bins following an investigation of cutting-edge schemes in Germany.
As Chas Ball, one of Geoff’s colleagues at community recycling organisation SWAP, recounts: “Geoff was a committed but also very relaxed and laid-back person who just got on with it. He was in touch with everything, because he was from this part of the world. I still think his whole strength comes down to the way he harnessed community involvement, that was part of the secret to a successful scheme, and it played a part in the rollout. Geoff was very proud of the fact that through what he was doing with SWAP, Leeds gained a very high profile in recycling for about 10 years.
“Geoff played that pioneering role brilliantly. He was the architect in the sense that he convinced the council to implement the scheme. Geoff was very good at getting people onside. He didn’t make a big thing of it, but he was certainly a pioneer of something that was about to turn into something major.”
Geoff remained at Leeds City Council until his retirement, receiving an MBE in the 1990s for his services to recycling.
Geoff is survived by his two sons and two grandchildren. The funeral takes place on 2 March at Lawnswood Crematorium, Leeds, and donations can be made to the Alzheimer’s Society.
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