A Preston business has become the first in the city to win three Queen’s Awards.

Recycling Lives won the award, held to be the highest accolade awarded to UK businesses, in the International Trade category.

It recognises Recycling Lives’ work processing waste streams for businesses and householders, to produce high-quality metals and plastics to be reused or re-manufactured.

Read more: Temporary chief executive for Preston City Council confirmed

In 2010 and 2014 the business was awarded for its Sustainable Development, growing from regional recycler to a business with global reach.

Recycling Lives uses its recycling and waste management business to support and sustain three charitable programmes, with four sites across Preston and five nationwide.

These offer residential support for the homeless, offender rehabilitation to reduce re-offending rates, and support for community groups and charities through food redistribution.

Its 15-acre Recycling Park in Longridge Road processes thousands of tonnes of waste each year, preventing 120,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions by returning recycled metals to markets across Europe, Asia and the US.

In the last 18 months, Recycling Lives has opened five new recycling sites nationally, growing its sales by 47 per cent to £46m, and working with major businesses including John Lewis Group, BT and British Gas.

It is now one of the largest private employers in Preston, employing 225 people at the Recycling Park and more than 150 more across its other sites and enterprises nationally.

Read more: Work begins at new Porsche showroom at the Docks

Steven Jackson OBE DL, Recycling Lives’ founder, said: “We are delighted to have won a third Queen’s Award. It is a fitting tribute to the skill and dedication of our team, the many beneficiaries of our work and the clients who choose to work with us – as well as a first for Preston.

“Recycling Lives’ model shows a business can be a force for good, combining commercial and charitable activities to deliver business growth and social impact for the communities we serve.”

A total of 185 businesses have won three or more Queen’s Awards since the scheme was launched in 1966.

Recycling Lives earned the Queen award in 2014 for its work in HMP Kirkham, offering offenders opportunities to develop skills and secure jobs upon release while working on recycling processes within the Category D men’s prison.

This has since been rolled out nationally, into nine prisons, becoming the most successful offender rehabilitation of its kind in UK prisons, reducing re-offending rates from the national average of around 67 per cent to just 6 per cent.

Do you know Recycling Lives? What do you think about its award? Let us know in the comments below