THE Thistles in Stirling is celebrating after winning two Green Apple Environment Awards in an international campaign to find the greenest companies, councils and communities.

The Green Apple Awards is one of the most high profile platforms for recognising green endeavour, and The Thistles has beaten off stiff competition in the Recycling Improvement category to be accorded with a Green Apple Gold award, the highest level of recognition.

Judges deemed the centre’s Coffee Cup Recycling Scheme, launched in conjunction with New Star Environmental and Simply Cups, worthy of the top gold honour.

The scheme enables The Thistles to add another waste stream to its already impressive array, with over 145kg or 20 bags of wax lined cups going to recycling in the first three months of the project.

Underpinning the centre’s green credentials further, a second honour, a Green Apple Bronze award for Environmental Improvement, acknowledges the centre’s A Garden with Bees project.

Originating in an unused area within the service yard, the garden has been built from recycled materials in which vegetables are now grown and then donated to the Sunlight Café in Stirling, a facility that give adults with mental health challenges the opportunities to gain self confidence in a catering facility.

Also included in the award-winning submission was The Thistles current work with Stirling High School and bee keeping company Plan Bee which has seen the installation of the Bee Hive on the centre’s roof.

As a result of this Green Apple Award success, The Thistles has also been invited to have its winning papers published in The Green Book, the leading international work of reference on environmental best practice, allowing others around the world to follow the centre’s example and learn from its achievement.

A spokesperson for The Thistles said: “We are delighted to have won these two prestigious awards, and for The Thistles to have been accorded gold status for our Coffee Cup Recycling Scheme, the highest level of recognition, is especially rewarding.

"The Thistles faced stiff competition from across the country and this double win is a wonderful finale to what has been an exciting year of green initiatives and ongoing improvements by the centre.”

The Green Apple Awards are organised by The Green Organisation, an independent, non-political, non-activist, non-profit environment group dedicated to recognising, rewarding and promoting environmental best practice around the world.

They are supported by the Environment Agency, the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, the Chartered Institution for Wastes Management and other independent bodies.