The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) has received a £10,500 donation from Viridor, one of the UK’s leading innovators in resource recovery and recycling, to support the charity to continue its vital work empowering those with sight loss.
The donation was triggered after safety motivational speaker, Tom Corfield, delivered a talk at Viridor’s Runcorn Energy Recovery Facility (ERF) site back in summer 2025, telling the story of how he was blinded after being involved in a workplace accident at the age of 17. In response to this talk, the team at Runcorn ERF was determined to support the RNIB and arranged for £250 for every accident-free day during their planned maintenance to be donated to the RNIB. After completing the entire outage period without a single incident, this figure totalled £10,500.
Viridor’s donation demonstrates the company’s unwavering commitment to safety.
Darren Bolton, Plant Manager at Viridor’s Runcorn ERF, said: “At Viridor we have the approach that safety is more than a policy – it’s a mindset. This ensures that safety is our top priority in all the work we do and we are proud every time we see all our colleagues go home safely at the end of the day. We are glad to have been able to combine our focus on safety with raising money for such an inspirational charity and thank the site teams and our contractors for their commitment to keeping each other safe.”
Tom Corfield, at Proud2bSafe, said: “Around two million people live with sight loss in the UK and face constant challenges from accessing treatment and services to a lack of support. Viridor’s donation will help RNIB to break down those barriers and continue delivering practical and emotional support that makes a real difference.”
While standalone donations such as this are a significant part of Viridor’s commitment to supporting important initiatives, the business also provides ongoing, localised support via its WeShare Community Fund – an annual £320,000 fund which is shared among projects across the country, with a focus on community involvement, education and sustainability.
Viridor is also the sole contributor to Halton Borough Council’s Environment Fund. To date over £7 million has been donated, with all funding coming directly from the ERF. This fund supports a wide range of community projects, local causes and organisations including creating a trail running circuit and building a new playground to repairing local war memorials to name but a few.
To find out more about Runcorn ERF, please visit the Viridor website at www.viridor.co.uk.