[Editor's Note] Milos Bezanov is a second year student currently studying International Politics at King’s College London.

Waste management. Not exactly the most exciting words you'll ever hear. It's not an industry sector that captures the imagination in the same way as “the city” or “investment banking”. The reason for this comes partly from the fact that, dealing with rubbish is, at least on the face of it (admittedly I've never been in the industry so can't know for sure), not the most fun or interesting of activities. However, this can't be said about Conor Guy, the founder of Envirogreen recycling. Having studied Law at university; the prospect of becoming just another lawyer didn't appeal; “I thought society was saturated by lawyers and solicitors”.

From here his career took an unconventional path; after working at the Irish Independent and Marie Keating, he's now the managing director at Envirogreen Recycling. His career to date couldn't have been more different from those around him who now make up the countless lawyers, solicitors or even barristers. In much the same way, Envirogreen couldn't be more different from it's competitors.

The service itself is no different from other Waste Management companies. Envirogreen buys and recycle the waste of customers from the commercial sector. Their service deals with metals, plastic, cardboard, but also glass, and shreddings. However, how that service is provided is what makes Envirogreen unique. They cleverly realised that recycling can be quite a hassle. Sorting rubbish into separate piles for plastic, paper, cardboard and metal is fairly time consuming, especially if you're a business and have a huge amount of rubbish to plough through. It would be enough to convince a lot of companies to just dump it all at the local skip.

However, Envirogreen provide a carbon reduction report that tells you just how many cars are off the road, or how many cubic feet of space in a landfill was saved thanks to your environmental consciousness. This not only shows that they care about what they do, but that they also care about what you do; making the effort in sorting seem tiny in comparison to the pride and fulfilment you've gained. What's more, they practice what they preach, using water saving taps, low energy consumption machinery and many other environmentally efficient measures at their HQ in Northern Ireland. It doesn't stop there either, as Conor has set the goal for Envirogreen to be completely carbon neutral. In short, what is refreshing about Envirogreen is that they don't just manage waste to make profit, but have genuine goals to improve the environment.

This desire translates into the quality of their business service. The national recovery rate of recyclable material is 39.5%, whereas Envirogreen recover 89%..I don't know what's more surprising; the fact that the national average is so low or that Envirogreen is so high. They have also undertaken a completely unique approach; by partnering up with specific firms with the specific aims of reducing waste. They did this with the Quinn Group, who, having previously experienced poor service from other waste management companies, were taken by surprise by Envirogreen's committed approach.

They had 11 objectives which ranged from the general goals of “reducing wastes and costs” to “inserting recycling receptacles”, as well as ensuring that they remained contactable and could respond quickly in case of emergency. They exceeded expectations, increasing recycling rates by over 30% with the firm. This attracted attention from other firms, and has created an impressive portfolio that includes Coca Cola bottlers, Kerry Foods and Britvic.

Coincidentally, Envirogreen would never have happened if Conor Guy didn't spot these inefficiencies in the Irish Waste Management industry; “The costs were sky high, I thought I could do a better job than they could!”. Sure enough, after raising £7000 from family and friends, success hit. Envirogreen moved it's base of operations out of Conor's farm shed and into a top recycling facility, and have gone from strength to strength ever since. Turning over £11.3 million in 2009. Today, it's operations stretch from the UK, Republic of Ireland and Poland During this time, both the company and Managing director were nominated for numerous awards. However, out of all of them, Conor marks the Shell Livewire Grand award ideas as the turning point; “ (that) gave impetus to move to the next stage and become an even bigger player in the market”.

Envirogreen is still in it's early stages, but it's rapid growth has attracted the attention of many onlookers, not just because they love what they do, but they do it in a way that nobody else does. Back when he finished Uni, Conor made a choice that few others did, and it took him to places few other have been. In much the same, Envirogreen's approach to recycling is completely different from it's competitors, and who knows where Conor will take it.

[Editor's Note] Milos Bezanov is a second year student currently studying International Politics at King’s College London.