History of SWR

SWR was formed in 2007 by Angus MacDonald. Angus, an entrepreneur with a very successful track record had been seeking a company to acquire in the recycling and waste management industry. Angus purchased Oakside Environmental Ltd in the spring of 2007 which formed the foundation of what is now SWR.

Oakside had a unique service specifically targeted at the UK automotive sector which became the first service of SWR.  A single contract for all waste streams produced by workshops and bodyshops which can number up to 20, including many hazardous wastes, that guarantees a recycling rate of over 75%.

Angus rapidly put together a strong management team and secured significant investment to enable the company to fulfil its existing potential and expand into other markets. Giles Whiteley joined the company as COO and set about making sure the company had the structure and infrastructure for growth and delivery of excellent service. Richard Brown, the founder of Oakside, joined SWR to head up the development of the automotive market which continues to go from strength the strength.

We didn’t have to look very far to understand that there were significant opportunities to offer our services to other industries and SWR was ideally suited to do so.  Several key observations have helped us define our direction and produce what we believe is an industry leading set of services;

•    good customer service is lacking across the waste industry
•    very few waste companies properly engage with customers
•    the number of companies able to provide a full national service is limited
•    customers need good reporting on their recycling performance and very few companies can provide this
•    some of the best companies to deal with are often not the largest
•    and, as companies recycle more they often end up with lots of waste and recycling contractors.

SWR has developed an approach to waste management designed to address the negatives and make the most of the positives and is applicable to most every business we can think of. These are described more detail in the ‘Our Services’ section of our website.

Today SWR has a head office and recycling depot in Alton Hampshire, offices in London and Perth, and further recycling depots in Peterborough, Burton on Trent, Wetherby, and Falkirk. We also have partner depots in Bristol and Manchester.   We provide a full national service and have an extensive network of partners equally committed to providing an excellent service to our customers.

All at SWR are very proud of the company we are building and the service we provide.