J&B News & Updates

17.03.21 | Business News

International Women’s Day 2021 celebrated with the message #ChooseToChallenge, reminding us that from challenge comes change.

As J&B Recycling marked International Women’s Day we reflected on how important gender equality is to the business. We actively encourage equal opportunities throughout the company, which is particularly important in a traditionally male dominated industry such as waste management.

J&B has identified development opportunities within the company which has resulted in the promotion of two Senior Managers to Director positions and therefore led to the business achieving 50/50 gender representation on the board.

The senior management team also has a 50/50 gender split, also with 33% of the people who hold managerial positions in the company starting their careers as apprentices.

Vikki Jackson-Smith, CEO at J&B Recycling, said: “Celebrating and supporting equal opportunities is something we are very proud of within the business and we continue to strive to improve gender equality in the wider world.

“Being surrounded by inspirational women in what is often considered a male dominated sector is important to break down any barriers that people may feel stand in their way and to demonstrate to other generations that they can pursue their goals regardless of the industry.”

Data from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ Digest of Waste and Resource Statistics 2018 report found that on average the waste sector employs 24% female and 76% male workers in the UK as of 2016. At J&B Recycling, as a whole, the difference in male to female representation is much smaller than the industry average with a workforce of around 33% women to 67% men, with women holding varied positions such as CEO, Finance Director, Operations Manager, HR Manager, Supervisors and Plant Drivers.

We actively encourage equal opportunities throughout the business and continue to try and work and improve the gender split within the company through opportunities. We continue to strive towards creating an environment and culture that enables people to express themselves by offering flexible working hours and an exceptional company benefits package promoting health.

Clare Bradley, Material Sales & Compliance Administrator at J&B Recycling, said: “J&B has given me so many opportunities. I started off in collections and worked my way to compliance and selling materials and continue to be offered opportunities all the time.

“J&B has given me the opportunity to excel in my work because they believe in everybody regardless of our gender and it shows through the women who are in managerial positions.

“I’ve even shown inspectors and buyers around the site and they can’t believe how many women work here, it is quite a male dominated industry so the visibility of women on site is really important.”

If you would like to find out more about opportunities to work at J&B Recycling, keep an eye on our careers page for any future vacancies.