RiverRidge Recycling, regarded as Northern Ireland’s largest independent waste management company, has grown exponentially since it acquired a small skip hire business in 2011. It has grown from 25 staff members in 2011 to over 190 today, having created more than seventeen new job roles in the last twelve months alone.
The group is based across four sites in Derry-Londonderry, Belfast, Coleraine and Portadown and moves waste on behalf of six local councils and over 3,000 private and public customers. With a focus on extracting all recyclables left in the waste stream as well as creating a fuel from residual fractions, the company diverts over 140,000mt from landfill each year.
Brett Ross, Managing Director of RiverRidge Recycling, commented; “The identification and extraction of value from waste streams has been fundamental to our company’s growth over the last 5 years. That value may be in the form of recyclables still trapped in the waste stream or energy that needs to be released as means of effecting final disposal.
“By focusing on this principle RiverRidge Recycling has gone from strength to strength through the generation of innovative and viable waste management and disposal opportunities. This growth has translated into the wider economy through the creation of seventeen new roles across a number of our operating divisions.
“As a local company, we are committed to building a team and a business which our community stakeholders can be proud of. We are confident that our investment into both infrastructure and job creation over the previous five years reflect this commitment, especially considering our achievements to date.”
Brett continues, “The future for Northern Ireland’s waste management sector is still bright given the recognition of its role in so many of our Environmental policies. The inclusion of the private sector in delivering these policy targets has definitely facilitated the rapid growth of jobs within the waste management sector as a whole. As a sector we now employ well over 1000 people and contribute in no small way to the national GDP of Northern Ireland.
“Building a company that Northern Irish people want to work for and consequently don’t leave to find work elsewhere is probably the biggest achievement we would hope to reach. The recent recession proved devastating to so many family units so ensuring that as much of our success is converted into job opportunities as is possible is core to ours as well as Northern Ireland’s future.”
