Lancing recycling champion awarded New Year Honour

Among their many contributions to the local community, Sue and her husband John have worked tirelessly for more than ten years to collect and recycle items on behalf of their community that would ordinarily be destined for landfill or incineration. Through their efforts they have ensured more than 2million items have been recycled.

To do so they signed up to a number of free recycling programmes offered by TerraCycle, a company that provides recycling solutions for ‘hard-to-recycle’ products and packaging. Sue and John set up a drop-off point at their home in Lancing, allowing the entire community to visit and drop off items including biscuit and snack wrappers, crisp packets, oral care products such as toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes, and more.

For each item of waste she sends for recycling, Sue receives a monetary donation to the charities of her choice. So far Sue has raised an enormous £71,528 which she has donated to a number of local charities, including Serv Sussex, Care for Veterans, Lancing & Sompting Foodbank, the local sea scouts group and the Lancing District branch of the NSPCC.

As well as recycling, Sue also co-ordinated the community’s prescriptions during the COVID-19 Lockdowns, working with another community member to deliver them to residents who were unable to leave the house. The couple also started a jigsaw puzzle library which has now grown to 14 crates worth of puzzles.

Sue said: “This award is equally surprising and humbling, and I am honoured to have been nominated. John and I aren’t people who like to shout about the work we do, so it’s a great feeling to have our efforts recognised by the community.

“We don’t know who nominated us for this award, but we would like to thank everyone in Lancing and beyond who has got involved and dropped off their waste, shared a puzzle, or helped us sort through the mountains of rubbish dropped with us every week. We appreciate all of your help and we look forward to many more years of supporting the community in any way we can.”

Sue will be presented with the Medal of the Order of the British Empire by the Lord-Lieutenant of West Sussex at a local ceremony and will be invited to attend a Royal Garden Party with the other honourees.

To help Sue and John with their recycling efforts, visit their Facebook page Recycling in Lancing: https://www.facebook.com/recyclinginLancing/ or their website https://recyclinginlancing.org.uk/