Our Story

Bryson began its first recycling project in 1993 with the Cash for Cans scheme where we encouraged people to recycle aluminium drinks cans by providing accessible collection points at locations such as supermarkets where they could be exchanged for cash. This soon spread across Northern Ireland with many youth and community groups and, business and individuals participating in the scheme. Between 1993 and 1999 over 6 million cans were collected each year.

With changes in legislation and a realisation that we need to be more environmentally aware, councils were looking for ways to get more of their residents recycling. In 2001 we set up a pilot kerbside recycling programme in partnership with Belfast City Council, Ards Borough Council and Castlereagh Borough Council. We provided kerbside boxes to 8000 households to collect paper, glass bottles and jars, food and drinks cans, plastic bottles, foil, textiles and old hand tools. Weekly collections were made using electric vehicles.

In 2003 we started collecting recyclables from schools and this service grew to become our commercial service, through which we currently collect from over 500 businesses and schools in the Eastern region of Northern Ireland.

It was during 2004 and 2005 that Bryson Recycling went through a very substantial period of growth, thanks to winning a number of local authority contracts in quick succession. Our number of employees jumped from 30 to over 200 in 12 months and we relocated our operations to Mallusk, as we rolled our kerbside box service out to 170,000 households and built a state of the art MRF to process recyclables collected from a further 250,000 households.

In 2012 and 2013 we won our first contracts outside Northern Ireland. The first was with Donegal County Council to manage six Recycling Centres in County Donegal, and the second was with Conwy County Borough Council to manage two Recycling Centres in North Wales.

Bryson recycling is now the largest social enterprise recycler in the UK; we collect and process materials collected from over 60% of homes in Northern Ireland, as well as operating 8 recycling centres in Donegal and Wales. In recent years we have been looking for ways to develop our kerbside collection service and have brought two new products to the marketplace – the Kerb-Sort vehicle and the Wheelie Box. You can read more about this in “Our Approach”.

Our Approach

Waste is an environmental problem, but through our social enterprise approach we consider it to be a resource that can be used to create opportunities to maximise social and environmental benefit.

Focus on Quality

We are committed to providing to excellent services that result in high quality materials that can be recycled locally. Over 85 percent of the materials we collect are recycled in Northern Ireland. We use this approach as it is better for the environment, creates more local jobs and supports the local economy. 

Providing Innovative Services

Our vision is to be an innovative provider of high quality recycling services that deliver social and economic value.

Kerb sort collections maintain material quality and in recent years we have developed two new products for this type of domestic collection service. 

We designed the Kerb-Sort vehicle in partnership with Offaly-based Company Romaquip and now have over 40 out on the road in Northern Ireland. Councils in Wales and Scotland are also now using the Kerb-Sort too.

We also recognised a need to improve the containers used for kerb sort recycling collections and worked with Leeds based company Straight to design the Wheelie Box that is easier for householders to use and allows them to recycle a wider range of materials whilst maintaining quality. They are now being used across 140,000 homes in the UK, including 16,000 in Northern Ireland. 

Our Wheelie Box model has been adopted as the Welsh “blueprint” for recycling and is the preferred model within the Scottish Recycling Charter, and we are keen to see this become the preferred option for kerbside recycling collections in England and Northern Ireland too.

Working Collaboratively

We work in partnership with the councils, government department and recycling companies to try and get the very best recycling results.

We recently established a Collaborative Circular Economy Network to promote an approach to recycling that creates economic growth opportunities for Northern Ireland and also launched the Recycling Rewards where money will be donated to charity for materials recycled through our kerbside box, creating a fantastic opportunity to boost local recycling rates as well as raise as well as raising the profile of kerb sort recycling. 

Health and Safety

The Health and Safety of our staff is our number one priority here at Bryson and we have a dedicated team to support our staff in their daily activities, ensuing they have a safe and healthy place to work. 

We are very proud of our Health and Safety record and have been named as a WISHNI Ambassador for the last two years running for our commitment to Health and Safety in the workplace.