Minster Surfacing has been shortlisted for five national green awards.

The road surfacing firm has been named as a finalist for three BusinessGreen Leaders Awards and two National Recycling Awards.

The company is nominated for Circular Economy Project of the Year and Small Business of the Year at the BusinessGreen Leaders Awards, with Managing Director Bruce Spencer-Knott also in the running for Entrepreneur of the Year. At the National Recycling Awards, Minster will compete in the Smarter Systems (Efficiency Award) and Waste Reduction Initiative – Commercial Sector categories.

Both of these national awards celebrate businesses and organisations that demonstrate a commitment to sustainability and the environment. The National Recycling Awards recognise and celebrate best practice and innovation in recycling and waste management, while the BusinessGreen Leaders Awards are recognised as the UK's most prestigious and high profile green business awards.

These nominations come after the Lincoln-based company won regional awards for its commitment to green technology and innovation last year. These included Best Business and Overall Winner of the Lincolnshire Environmental Awards 2018 and the Innovation in Construction Award at the Lincolnshire Innovation & Technology Awards 2018.

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Minster is one of the first companies in the UK to be using technology which enables it to recycle the material that's removed from old roads so it can be reused on-site to create new surfaces. Crucially, this technology also enables it to recycle road material containing coal-tar, which can cost councils up to £100 per tonne to safely send to landfill. Currently, the company recycles around 50% of the material it handles, although it has ambitious plans to significantly increase this in future.

Alongside this, the company uses high-tech vehicle-mounted laser scanning technology to quickly and accurately measure surfaces, creating computer aided designs and instructions for new surfaces to reduce waste and improve quality. The company also uses GPS tracking and temperature monitoring to guarantee quality and reduce waste further.

Recently, the company has been using additional road material to create durable farm tracks, industrial yards and car parks that are 100% recycled and almost as high quality as new roads.

These green innovations have prevented hundreds of thousands of tonnes of material from being sent to landfill and they have significantly reduced the need more mineral aggregate to be quarried or oil to be extracted and transported to create new surfaces.

Managing Director of Bruce Spencer-Knott said: "We were thrilled to be recognised regionally for our green innovations last year, and since then, we've developed and refined our processes further so we can reduce waste and recycle at every stage of the construction process. Now, we're up against some big, well-known companies for some of the most prestigious green business awards in the country, which is amazing. I couldn't be more proud of my team and grateful to our clients for their willingness to embrace new technology and new ways of working.

"People think that road surfacing is a dirty, pollutive, old-fashioned industry, but we're demonstrating that it can be a modern, high-tech and green aspect of civil engineering and construction. It's an honour to be shortlisted for these awards; fingers crossed that they'll soon be taking pride of place in our trophy cabinet!"

(CM/MH)