ARUN GREEN WASTE CLUB WINS TOP NATIONAL RECYCLING AWARD

Littlehampton, 16th November 2007 – Arun’s highly successful Green Waste Club, run by specialist waste and recycling contractor Verdant, has won a prestigious national recycling award.

The Club took top honours in the Best Partnership Project category of the 2007 National Recycling Awards, organised by leading trade publication MRW. The awards event, attended by hundreds of delegates from the waste and recycling industry and local government, was held at the Telford International Centre on 14th November.

Arun’s Green Waste Club scheme has attracted over 8,500 committed members who have recycled over 7,500 tonnes of green waste since mid-2005. A record 762 tonnes of green waste were collected in July this year, around a third by weight of the 2,139 tonnes of recyclables collected that month, during which Arun achieved a 40% recycling rate for the first time.

The scheme is a partnership between Verdant, Arun District Council, Arun residents, composting reprocessor The Woodhorn Group, West Sussex County Council, and Aldingbourne Nursery. Verdant says the Club’s innovation, practicality, operational excellence and inclusive partnership approach have enabled it to make a significant contribution to reducing waste.

A survey of Club members last year found that 96% were satisfied with service reliability, 94% with customer service, and 97% with the Club as a whole.

In their citation for making the award to the Club, the judges said they liked the fact that local green waste is turned into compost available to the local community through local gardening centres. They also felt the scheme ‘had a good social element to it’, and was ‘very accessible’.

Verdant director Roger Edwards, who received the award on behalf of the Club, said: “This is a fantastic achievement as a National Recycling Award is regarded very highly. Everyone associated with Arun’s Green Waste Club, from the enthusiastic residents who make it possible to Verdant’s professional collection crews, have very good reason to be proud of the part they’ve played. I thank everyone for their support. This award is for them and I look forward to the Club’s continuing expansion.”

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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 20 local authorities. 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. A new recycling and waste collection service for South Bucks District Council also began in November 2007. Other current local authority customers include Melton, Anglesey, Gosport, Mid Bedfordshire, Bridgend, Chiltern, Arun, Stratford, Aylesbury Vale and Wycombe.

For further media information, contact:

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