Members of the waste industry have been listed in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2012, which was released on 16 June.

Several members of the waste industry were recognised for their contributions to British life, including Colin Drummond, Chief Executive of waste management company Viridor, who has been appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his ‘services to technology and innovation’ alongside Nina Sweet, Organics Sector Specialist for WRAP, who was recognised for her ‘services to the waste industry’.

Commenting on his award, Drummond said: “It’s an honour and humbling. I would like to thank everyone I have worked with at Viridor and in the recycling and waste industry more broadly over the past 20 years. I regard it as an honour for the company and our sector more generally. I have been lucky and privileged in my friends and colleagues.”

Drummond has been Executive Director or Pennon Group PLC and Chief Executive of Viridor since 1992 and is Chairman of the government’s Living with Environmental Change Business Advisory Board, the Environmental Sustainability Knowledge Transfer Network and of UKTI’s Water and Environmental Sector Advisory Group.

John Galvin, Waste Regulation and Crime Team Leader at Defra was also recognised, being appointed as a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) for ‘services to the environment’.

Anthony Cleland, a street sweeper from Veolia Environmental Services was awarded one of the newly revived British Empire Medals (BEMs, previously scrapped in 1992 but reintroduced this year by David Cameron as part of the conservative’s ‘Big Society’ campaign) for ‘services to the community in Lambeth, South London’.

More than 1,200 people were recommended to the Queen for an award this year in the 650-year-old honours system that recognises the achievements and services of people across the UK and abroad.

Anyone can receive an award if they reach the required standard of merit or service, and honours lists contain a wide variety of people from different backgrounds. An investiture will be held at Buckingham Palace later this year.

The full Queen’s Birthday Honours list can be found on the Direct Gov website.