Shabra Plastics and Packaging has taken home the Excellence in Waste Management Award at the Green Awards 2026, celebrated for a circular plastics operation that demonstrates advanced technical capability, genuine environmental ambition, and the kind of industry collaboration that turns complex waste streams into high-value recovered materials at meaningful scale.

The award, announced on 24 February 2026 at the Clayton Hotel, Burlington Road, reflects a business that has made circular economy principles the backbone of how it operates — not as an aspiration but as a functioning, scalable reality.

At the heart of Shabra's recognition is its work in converting hard-to-recycle plastics into premium secondary materials, with a significant uplift in PET to rPET conversion standing as one of the programme's most concrete achievements.

The closed-loop approach underpinning this work ensures that materials are kept in productive use rather than lost to landfill or export, while a commitment to local reprocessing reduces the carbon footprint associated with transporting waste across borders — a dimension of the programme that judges identified as particularly significant in the context of Ireland's broader emissions reduction obligations.

The enthusiasm and collaborative spirit running through Shabra's submission was as notable to judges as the technical outcomes. "Shabra Plastics and Packaging demonstrated advanced technical capability in turning hard to recycle plastics into high value secondary materials at scale. With a significant increase in PET to rPET conversion, a closed loop approach, and leadership in local reprocessing that reduces emissions, the work shows how ambition, enthusiasm, and industry collaboration can deliver real environmental impact," the panel stated.

The Excellence in Waste Management Award recognises organisations whose work moves the needle on Ireland's circular economy ambitions. Shabra Plastics and Packaging has done precisely that, building a model that others in the plastics and packaging industry can look to as proof that local capability, properly invested in, can drive environmental outcomes of genuine national significance.

As the Green Awards near their two-decade milestone, Shabra Plastics and Packaging joins a cohort of winners whose work demonstrates that Ireland's transition to a circular economy will be built on the shoulders of businesses willing to combine technical innovation with the ambition to do things differently.

For the complete 2026 winners list, category insights, and organisation profiles, visit the official Green Awards website and subscribe to the newsletter.