25 June 2019

by Joshua Doherty

Wiltshire-based Grist Environmental has claimed the title in the annual National Refuse Championships for the second consecutive year.

Grist picked up the award after beating crews from across the UK in the third annual NRC event on 15 June, to raise money for The Alzheimer’s Society.

Event organisers said that thousands of people gathered along the Beach Lawns in Tunbridge Wells to watch 26 teams compete in gruelling races against the clock.

The event sees collection crews compete by loading wheeled-bins with bags of sand then pulling or pushing them to an awaiting refuse truck. Containers are emptied before the vehicles race to the finish line to find a winner.

Teams taking part in the event included Biffa Sussex, Grundon, Bristol Waste Company, Oxford Direct Services, Faun Zoeller, Smiths Waste Management, Cartwrights, Amey, Pirtek, Imperial Commercials, Cawleys, and Devon Contract Waste.

Local team Biffa (Weston-super-Mare) came in at a close second and Warwick-based refuse vehicle manufacturer, Dennis Eagle came third.

Spencer Law, founder of the competition and managing director of Refuse Vehicle Solutions Ltd said of the event: “We are delighted with how the waste management industry and the people of Weston-super-Mare have embraced this event. It just gets better and better every year. We had lots of coverage on TV and social media. We are still calculating how much has been raised for The Alzheimer’s Society but we hope it will meet or beat last year’s amount which was in excess of £20k.”

Competition

After seeing his team crowned the 2019 winner, Marcus Grist, events director at Grist Environmental said: “It was a great day and the sportsmanship between the teams was fantastic. We love the event and we’ve never been beaten over the line, although we did come second one year due to penalties.”

Mr Grist added: “Our families had a superb time too; the children loved getting inside the trucks, as well as all the giveaways. There was a lot of pressure on us this year. One of our drivers said he found his daughters searching up what they wanted to do at Centre Parcs so he knew he needed to win!”

The final between Grist and Biffa

The coveted trophy

National Refuse Championships 2019

The final amount raised by this year’s event will be announced soon. The winning team were presented with a trophy and received £3,000 worth of Centre Parcs vouchers. Runners up received between £1,250 and £1,000 in gift vouchers.