Double business award success for Brewster Bros

Recycling firm receives top accolades for innovation and industry recognition at The Herald Family Business Awards

LIVINGSTON-based Brewster Bros have achieved double success at The Herald Family Business Awards 2019, winning the Business Innovation accolade for their strong focus on sustainability and meeting Scotland’s ambition to be a world leader on tackling climate change.

Malcolm Livingstone (pictured centre) also joined owners Scott Brewster (left), along with his father Alex Brewster, on the winners’ rostrum, as he picked up the first ever Scottish Family Business Recognition award for his 35 years loyal service to the family business.

Since opening a CDE waste-recycling plant in 2018, one of the largest facilities of its type in the UK, Brewster Bros have led the way in shaping the future of the recycling industry across Scotland and this award demonstrates the impact they have made across the country’s construction sector.

The state-of-the-art processing plant has provided waste-management services and supplied recycled aggregates to builders, construction firms, concrete product producers, civil contractors and utility businesses from Brewster’s recycling site in Scotland’s central belt.

As well as retaining all staff from the previous family owner, Brewster Bros have taken on seven new staff since September 2018 and the plant is on target to double turnover within the first two years of opening.

The company’s £3.8 million investment in the recycling centre includes a £2.1 million spend on high-efficiency CDE equipment, which has delivered a capacity to recycle 400,000 tonnes of construction, demolition and excavation waste per year.

There has been further investment in the plant since opening including six new Scania tipper lorries, a Komatsu loading shovel and a filter press, which has allowed the business to produce a clay product that can be used as an impermeable liner or general cohesive fill material.

Scott Brewster, director at Brewster Bros, said: ‘Since opening the recycling plant last year, our number one aim is to treat and recycle construction and demolition as a resource, ensuring zero waste to landfill – and I believe we are meeting this aim and will continue to do so over the coming years.

‘Winning the Business Innovation award is a real recognition of what we’ve achieved in our first year of operating and it’s very special as a family business to be part of the prestigious Herald Family Business Awards.’

The new facility supports the Scottish Government’s Circular Economy Strategy ‘Making Things Last’, which aims to secure 70% recycling of construction and demolition waste by 2020. All recycled materials from the plant will come with a quality certification and conform to the requirements for the BREEAM Sustainability Assessment Method for Construction.