A "greatly valued" recycling manager has died after contracting coronavirus, his friend has written in his obituary.
Iain Buss, recycling operations manager at Bath & North East Somerset Council, died on March 23.
He passed away during a short stay at the Royal United Hospital in Bath after testing positive for Covid-19, according to today's (April 27) obituary on the Let's Recycle website, written by colleague Steve Thorne.
Council chief executive Will Godfrey told Bristol Live: “Several weeks ago we lost a well-respected and greatly valued member of our waste services team who worked with Bath & North East Somerset Council for more than 20 years.
"Iain was instrumental in setting up kerbside recycling collections in the area and is sadly missed by us all. Our sincerest thoughts and respects are with Iain’s family.”
Mr Thorne's obituary of Mr Buss says: "I am honoured and privileged to have worked with Iain through the 1990s in the community sector and on my return to the council in 2017.
"Iain was such a passionate advocate of recycling in the area and will be sadly missed by all of his colleagues. I am also proud to call him a good friend outside of work, playing rugby with him for many years and being part of his life."
Mr Thorne described Mr Buss' work as "key in the development of the kerbside collection service we see today", with the introduction of one of the first Kerbside sort collections to add plastic bottles.
He added: "During the early 2000s, Iain took on a new challenge with adding new commercial collections to the recycling service, merging with Resourcesavers commercial collections, creating RRS Recycling."
'His heart was always with his old service'
Mr Buss also worked for community sector organisation ECT Recycling, based at the Somerset Waste Partnership depot in Evercreech.
He spent time as an assistant manager at the Weston-super-Mare depot, "but his heart was always with his old service at Bath and North East Somerset Council", Mr Thorne wrote.
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Mr Buss later took up a recycling supervisor post at the Keynsham depot, before becoming recycling operations manager at the council.
"In 2017 Bath and North East Somerset Council took the recycling service in-house and harmonised the waste and recycling services," the obituary reads.
"Iain was instrumental in the implementation of the new service for the local authority at this time including total round reorganisation and introduction of a fleet of new vehicles.
"If anyone would like to send words of support to his wife Annika and sons Bruno and Olly, I am more than happy to pass them on via my email Steve_Thorne@BATHNES.GOV.UK."
The council declined to comment on the cause of Mr Buss' death.
