My lifelong friend and colleague Mike Croxford, who has died aged 71, was a pioneer of recycling in his native Wales. The Welsh government’s current recycling performance – at 60% it is fourth in Europe – owes much to Mike, who was a founder member of the Zero Waste movement worldwide and of the Zero Waste International Trust.
His interest in recycling began in 1980, while running the Augusta Street youth project in Cardiff. The young people started collecting newspapers to improve their standing among local people and to fundraise to run events for the community. The project turned into the Community Support Anti-Waste Scheme (CSAWS) that in 1986 initiated the first citywide collection scheme in the UK.
When CSAWS was wound up after funding changes, Mike did some consultancy work and then moved to Newport to transform the collection system Wastesavers. He was chairman of National Community Recycling Networks until it too was wound up, in 2012, hosting conferences and meeting ministers at Westminster and in Cardiff. He was also active in promoting Zero Waste worldwide.
Mike was born in Cardiff. His father, John, was a Pathfinder pilot who died in action over Germany in 1944, six months before Mike was born. His mother, Dorothy (nee Pugh), was the nursing sister at the Dock Labour Board (the dockland medical centre) until the mid-1970s. After his father’s death, the RAF funded some years of Mike’s education at King’s College, Taunton, and then he attended Monkton House school in Cardiff before gaining a hospitality qualification at Cardiff College of Food Technology.
In 1969 Mike was managing the Grand Hotel in Cardiff when he met Anne Rowlands, an economics student at Cardiff University who had a part-time job at the hotel. Shortly after Anne’s graduation in 1970 the couple moved to east Africa, where Mike took up a hotel management job at the Oyster Bay, Dar es Salaam, and they had a daughter, Kari. After Anne and Mike divorced a few years later, Mike spent several years in India and Nepal, including a few months in a Buddhist monastery.
In 1978 he met Pam Hall. They married and had two children, Alexandra and Sam; Pam already had a son, Jason, and a daughter, Julie.
Friends since childhood, Mike and I shared accommodation for three years when he returned to Wales. At Wastesavers in 1994 he met Caroline Williams, who was involved in educational work and who became his companion for the rest of his life.
At 6ft 5in and with a big voice to match, Mike was larger than life, attracting attention and affection commensurate with that substantial presence. He had a wickedly sharp wit, a wide range of cultural interests and enjoyed fishing.
He was appointed MBE in 2006.
He is survived by Caroline, Kari, Alex, Sam, Jason and Julie.
