ARUN HITS RECORD 40% RECYCLING RATE

Sevenoaks, Kent, 15th August 2007 – Municipal services contractor Verdant Group Plc (www.verdant-group.co.uk) reports that the recycling rate for Arun District Council (www.arun.gov.uk) hit a record high last month, with an average 40% of waste – over 1,700 tonnes – being sent for reprocessing rather than landfill.

Arun’s recycling service, which, together with refuse collection and street and beach cleansing, has been run by Verdant since early 2005, was recently voted the best in West Sussex in a customer survey, and now ranks in the top 25% of district and borough councils in the country.

Cllr Paul Wotherspoon, Cabinet Member for the Environment, said: “This is great news for everyone who has worked so hard to make recycling a success in Arun. On behalf of the council, I would like to say a big ‘thank you’ to everyone who’s doing their bit for the environment by recycling their household and garden waste. It is fantastic to see the community responding so positively, putting Arun up among the best district councils in the country with their efforts.

From 13% to 40% in Two Years
“Together with Verdant, we’ve worked hard over the last two years to provide Arun residents with accessible and easy-to-use recycling facilities. The dramatic increase in our recycling rate, from 13% two years ago to 40% today, reflects the success of the Arun-Verdant partnership and the community’s commitment to the recycling cause.”

He added: “We are constantly striving for more. We have already hit the government target for 2010, recently announced as part of its Waste Strategy Review. Now we will continue to add more materials that residents can recycle, as well as new ways of recycling, so that together we can push Arun’s rate even higher.”

Over 5 Million Collections Annually
Verdant’s crews carry out over 5.25 million refuse and recycling collections per year in Arun, and performance figures show they ‘get it right first time’ in over 99.9% of cases.

As well as providing kerbside collection of waste and recyclables, Arun council and Verdant also run the Green Waste Club for recycling garden waste, a significant contributor to Arun’s recycling success. For a small fee, Arun residents join the Club and receive a brown wheeled bin dedicated to their garden waste. This is collected fortnightly by Verdant, composted at a local facility, and the compost resold at local garden centres.

Jon Miles, Verdant Group chairman, said: “We now have over 8,400 members in our Green Waste Club and they play a major part in improving Arun’s recycling performance. They are currently recycling record levels of green waste and have averaged over 160 tonnes per week in the last month. Up to 40% of household waste can be green, and the Club has already helped divert thousand of tonnes of bio-degradable waste from going to landfill.” 

- ends -

About Verdant
Verdant Group plc, a specialist in providing a range of environmental services to local authorities in England and Wales, is fast becoming one of the most successful niche companies in this sector. The UK-owned group, which has its head office in Sevenoaks, provides a wide range of waste collection, recycling and cleansing services for an expanding local authority customer base, and estimates it makes over 20 million waste and recycling collections annually. Verdant handles recycling, refuse collection and street and beach cleansing contracts for 15 local authorities, and recent additions to its portfolio include a three year green waste recycling contract for South Oxfordshire District Council, a seven year cleansing, waste collection and recycling contract for Rother District Council, a three year green waste recycling contract for Surrey Heath Borough Council, a 12 year cleansing, waste collection and recycling contract for South Beds District Council, a seven year cleansing, refuse collection and recycling contract for Swale Borough Council, and its first business for a London borough, a six year waste collection and recycling service for Waltham Forest Council. Other current local authority customers include Melton, Anglesey, Gosport, Mid Bedfordshire, Bridgend, Chiltern, Arun, Stratford, Aylesbury Vale, Warwick and Wycombe.

For further media information, contact:

Blair Drummond, Verdant PR consultant – tel (m) 07798 686 217, email blair.drummond@btopenworld.com