BOLTON’s Crompton Place shopping centre is proving its green credentials by ensuring more than 80 per cent of its waste is now recycled.

It has already won an industry award for reducing electricity and water consumption and is now ahead of Government legislation to reduce the amount of rubbish going to landfill sites.

Crompton Place is owned by LaSalle Investment Management and has 46 shops and stores employing more than 500 staff.

Malcolm Angus, the mall manager, said: “We have five waste systems operating on the site.

“More than 80 per cent goes to a recovery facility and about 13 per cent, mainly food waste, goes to landfill.

“Paper is collected in 9kg bags and we have our own cardboard bailer, which we bought four years ago. Plastics are bailed on-site into parcels for the waste contractors.”

The waste is collected and recycled by SAICA Natur, a firm which operates in the UK, Spain and France. It also carries out an audit every year for Crompton Place to advise on any improvements.

Mr Angus said: “It makes environmental sense for Crompton Place to recycle and also provides us with an income. We earn about £600 a month from recycled cardboard.”

Mr Angus has worked in shopping centre management since 1997 and came to Crompton Place in 2006.

Three years ago the centre won the top Diamond Award and a Healthy Living Award. It was also highly commended in the Environmental Best Practice category in the Groundwork Environmental Awards. These are run by the Groundwork trusts across the UK, including the Bury and Bolton branch.

Judges praised the mall’s work for going beyond legal requirements and including staff, customers and schoolchildren.

Mr Angus added: “In recent years we have reduced water and electricity consumption, fitted 170 energy-saving lights and installed motion sensors in areas which were little used, which has saved 24,000 kilowatts of energy.

“We have also installed flush saver devices and fitted spray taps to reduce water consumption by 475 cubic metres.

“It’s important that a shopping centre is environmentally friendly and seen to be playing its part in conserving energy and recycling as much as we can to reduce landfill.”

Mr Angus’s personal efforts have also been recognised. He won a manager of the year industry award last year, when judges looked at how the centre engages with retailers.

They also said Mr Angus had helped increase the shopping centre’s commercial activity, despite the tough times facing all retailers.