Online recycling tool nominated for top award

Recycleopedia.com, founded by Horsham ‘green-thinker’ Paul Bearman, helps sort your recycling by using a search tool identifying your product and showing you where best to dispose of it.

Users simply type what they are looking for into the search box along with their location and results reveal the nearest recycling bank or advises which bin use at home.

Paul told the County Times: “I’m very proud that Recycleopedia.com has been nominated for this award, with a full time job and the usual family life to fit it around it has taken a lot of evenings, nights and weekends work to get to this point.”

Explaining his concept further, Paul continued: “The unique thing about Recycleopedia.com is that users can add and edit items and product descriptions that they are looking to recycle, and do the same with recycling locations. If you find a new place to recycle something or a new product you can upload this and it’s instantly added to the Recycleopedia.com database, after moderation the new information then gets shared with all other users immediately.”

Paul’s further development plans for Recycleopedia include an online shop, jobs board, business directory and ‘swap shop’.

He added: “I hope to have a shop online within the next six months selling recycled and other eco products with a focus on smaller, individual makers and creators as well as the more common products you find, with further developments including a mobile version of the site within a year.”

The online invention comes at a time when landfill waste expenses are rising. It now costs £64 per tonne, and councils everywhere will be looking to increase their recycling rates even further to save and earn more money. Recycleopedia.com hopes it can help increase recycling rates by supplying the information that consumers are looking for in a simple, easy to use form.

Paul says his ‘fingers are crossed’ for Recycleopedia.com at the BusinessGreen Leaders Awards night on July 4 later this year.