VERDANT STARTS ROLLING OUT MID BEDS KITCHEN WASTE SCHEME

Sevenoaks, Kent, 25th June 2008 – Municipal recycling services specialist Verdant Group Plc has started the district-wide expansion of a kitchen waste collection scheme to nearly 56,000 households in the Mid Beds District Council area.

Following a ‘very successful’ 12-month trial with 6,000 households, run in conjunction with Mid Beds DC and Bedfordshire County Council, Verdant added a further 2,000 properties in mid-June to create the first complete round for the new service.

Between June and December this year, Verdant will roll out a total of seven collection rounds, each comprising around 8,000 properties serviced by a brand new 12 tonnes collection vehicle.

The kitchen waste recycling scheme is based on each household having two caddies: a larger 21 litre caddy stored outside, and a smaller seven litre caddy used indoors for collecting day-to-day kitchen waste. The householder empties the smaller caddy each day into the larger caddy, which is then collected weekly by Verdant.

The kitchen waste is transported to the Biogen anaerobic digestion facility at Milton Ernest which turns the organic matter into bio-fertiliser, as well as producing electricity which fuels the plant and feeds the National Grid with the excess electricity produced.

Around three in every four households participated in the trial – a rate described by Mid Beds DC as ‘very impressive and which bodes well for the wider scheme’. The trial diverted up to 12 tonnes of kitchen waste per week (around 1.75 kgs per property pw) and Mid Beds DC estimates that district-wide, around 80 tonnes pw, or 5,000 tonnes pa, could be recycled.

Paul Ammons, Verdant’s business manager for Mid Beds, said: “The close and flexible co-operation between Verdant, Mid Beds DC and Biogen helped us offer residents a new, efficient weekly service. They responded brilliantly, which means the district-wide rollout should be very successful.”

Steve Whittaker, contract services manager at Mid Beds DC, commented: “Food waste is the big focus for many authorities trying to boost their recycling record, and here in Mid Beds, we have a proven, popular and efficient service. The trial was very successful, not least because we invested in communication with residents, and so were able to fine-tune the service with Verdant. We’re delighted by the results, and look forward to recording some seriously impressive tonnages of recycled kitchen waste over the coming months.”
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About Verdant
Verdant Group Plc, part of the Greenstar UK group, provides waste collection, recycling and cleansing services for an expanding local authority customer base in England and Wales. It makes an estimated 20 million-plus waste and recycling collections annually on behalf of its 24 current local authority customers. Recent additions to its portfolio include a seven year waste, recycling and cleansing contract for Stratford-on-Avon District Council; seven year cleansing, waste and recycling contracts for Rother District Council and Swale Borough Council; a seven year recycling, refuse and cleansing contract for South Buckinghamshire District Council; and, as its first London borough contract, a six year waste collection and recycling service for Waltham Forest Council. During 2007, Verdant also started a six year management contract for seven of Kent County Council’s 12 household waste recycling centres. Other current local authority customers include Melton, Anglesey, Gosport, Mid Bedfordshire, South Bedfordshire, Bridgend, South Oxfordshire, Chiltern, Arun, Surrey Heath, Aylesbury Vale and Wycombe. The Verdant-operated Arun Green Waste Club won the Best Partnership Project category at the 2007 National Recycling Awards, and Verdant also won the Best Commitment to Health & Safety Practice category of the 2005 National Recycling Awards.

For further media information, contact:

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