Recycling Manager

£35,000 - £43,000 pa, plus up to 10% performance bonus

Employment Type

Full Time

Job Duration

Permanent

Location

Home-based, within Southwest England

16 Oct 2026

Help us make every coffee pod recyclable

Podback’s vision is “to create a world where every coffee pod enjoyed is recycled.”

We’re looking for an experienced Recycling Manager to join our team and play a key role in delivering that vision.

This is an exciting opportunity for someone with experience in the recycling, waste or resource management sector who enjoys building strong partnerships, solving operational challenges and finding ways to make services work better.

As Recycling Manager, you’ll manage relationships with some of Podback’s key retail collection partners, including Morrisons, Asda and Costa Coffee, helping to ensure their programmes deliver excellent operational performance and a great experience for customers.

You’ll also have the opportunity to contribute to the development of Podback’s future collection network, supporting our ambition to expand coffee pod recycling through kerbside collections across the UK.

You’ll take ownership of a portfolio of strategic retail partnerships, acting as the primary account manager and building trusted relationships with senior contacts.

• Managing key retail partner relationships and leading regular account reviews.
• Monitoring operational performance against KPIs, contractual commitments and service standards.
• Identifying opportunities to improve collection efficiency, participation, customer experience and operational best practice.
• Investigating operational issues and coordinating effective corrective actions.
• Managing contractual relationships and supporting contract reviews, variations and operational planning.
• Preparing clear and accurate operational reports and presenting performance information to stakeholders.
• Working with retailers, logistics providers, recyclers and collection partners to resolve operational and contractual issues.
• Supporting the planning, mobilisation and implementation of future kerbside collection programmes.
• Developing relationships with Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs), local authorities, waste management companies and other relevant stakeholders.
• Representing Podback at retailer meetings, industry events and conferences.
• Supporting the effective management of programme budgets and operational expenditure.

We’re looking for someone who combines sector knowledge, commercial awareness and excellent relationship-building skills. You’ll be a natural relationship builder who can work confidently with a wide range of people and organisations.

You’ll be comfortable taking ownership, getting into the detail of operational issues and working collaboratively to find solutions. You’ll also be able to step back and see the bigger picture, identifying opportunities to improve services and support Podback’s longer‑term ambitions.

You’ll ideally have:

• At least 5 years’ experience in recycling, waste or resource management within the UK.
• Experience working with or alongside local authorities and/or national recycling programmes.
• Proven experience managing important customer, client or partner relationships, including dealing with people at all levels in an organisation.
• Strong analytical skills and experience preparing reports and presenting performance information.
• Excellent organisational and project coordination skills, and the ability to identify and solve problems.
• Experience of Microsoft Office, particularly Excel and PowerPoint.
• A full, clean UK driving licence and the able to travel throughout the UK.

This is an opportunity to join an organisation with a clear purpose and play an important role in shaping the future of coffee pod recycling in the UK.

You’ll work across the recycling, retail and waste management sectors, building relationships with major organisations while contributing to the development of innovative collection solutions.

If you have the experience, curiosity and enthusiasm to help us deliver excellent recycling programmes today and develop the collection networks of tomorrow, we’d love to hear from you.