Westbury business honoured with King’s Award

A Westbury business has been presented with The King’s Award for Enterprise in Sustainability 2026 at a special ceremony in Dilton Marsh.

Waste to Wonder Worldwide, which helps businesses reuse and redistribute furniture to schools, charities and community groups in the UK and internationally, was the only Wiltshire company to receive the award this year.

The presentation took place at Fairfield College, where His Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of Wiltshire, Dame Sarah Troughton, presented the company with its engraved award and an official scroll signed by His Majesty The King.

The ceremony was attended by the Waste to Wonder team, including co-founders Alan Cooper OBE and Michael Amos as well as clients, partners and representatives from charities and other organisations that have received furniture through the company’s reuse programme.

The Westbury-based organisation works with companies to reuse and redistribute furniture to schools, charities and community groups in the UK and internationally, rather than allowing it to become waste.

Fairfield College was chosen as the setting for the presentation because it is one of the organisations to have received furniture through the programme.

Michael Amos, Managing Director of Waste to Wonder Worldwide, said, “Receiving The King’s Award for Enterprise is an incredibly proud and emotional moment for all of us. Waste to Wonder began with a simple belief: that good-quality furniture should be helping people, not heading to landfill. To see that belief grow into something that has reached communities across 50 countries is extraordinary.

“This award belongs to our entire team. Their care, determination and commitment are behind every clearance, every delivery and every piece of impact we create. It also belongs to the clients and partners who have trusted us to find a better way, and to the charities and recipient organisations that turn these resources into opportunities for others.

“Over the past 23 years, we have seen unwanted workplace furniture become classrooms, training centres, healthcare facilities and spaces where communities can thrive.

“To celebrate this achievement here in Wiltshire, surrounded by our team and so many of the people who have been part of our journey, makes it even more special. The award recognises how far we have come, but it also strengthens our determination to do even more.”

HM Lord-Lieutenant of Wiltshire, Dame Sarah Troughton DCVO, said, “Waste to Wonder takes a seemingly complex recycling concept and creates a simple and hugely effective operation. The social enterprise and everyone involved should be rightly proud, and I am delighted for them and for Wiltshire as a whole that they have been awarded a King’s Award for Sustainability. Bravo!”

Over the past 23 years, Waste to Wonder’s work has supported more than 1,700 schools, charities and community organisations across 50 countries. More than 1.5 million items have been reused, creating over £60 million in fair market value for recipient organisations and helping to improve the lives of an estimated 1.5 million people.

Approximately 50,000 tonnes of furniture and equipment have been diverted from waste through the organisation’s work.

Waste to Wonder’s wider charitable initiatives include the installation of 30 solar-powered borewells in The Gambia, collectively providing access to clean water for approximately 60,000 people, as well as the development of a Sustainability Cookery School.

In 2025 alone, Waste to Wonder reused more than 2.3 million kilograms of furniture and equipment across 282 projects. More than 71,000 items were redistributed to 57 charities, generating over £5 million in fair market value and £7.14 million in calculated social value. The reuse of these items also avoided over 6 million kilograms of carbon emissions.

Across its projects, Waste to Wonder typically achieves an average reuse rate of 97%, with the small proportion that cannot be reused responsibly recycled and nothing sent to landfill.

Pictured: His Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of Wiltshire, Dame Sarah Troughton presents The King’s Award to Managing Director Michael Amos and Co-Founder Alan Cooper OBE at Fairfield College in Dilton Marsh