VERDANT SCORES A DOUBLE WITH COMBINED CONTRACT WIN

Sevenoaks, 12th January 2009 – Municipal recycling and waste service specialist Verdant has secured its first joint council contract. It will provide an integrated recycling, refuse and street cleansing service for South Oxfordshire District Council and its neighbour, Vale of White Horse District Council.

The combined value of the contract for the initial eight-and-a-half year term will be in excess of £50m and was secured after a competitive dialogue process with industry. For South Oxfordshire’s 56,813 households, the new service starts in June 2009, while Vale of White Horse’s 50,782 homes get their new service in October next year.

The main focus of the new contract, designed to help both councils meet and beat their landfill waste reduction and recycling improvement targets, will be alternate week collection of recyclables and refuse, coupled with a weekly food waste collection and a fortnightly green waste service. Greenstar subsidiary Verdant had been operating South Oxfordshire’s green waste collections since mid 2006.

The shared contract is a continuation of the successful partnership of the two councils, which are working together to save money, share expertise and deliver a consistent service across neighbouring local authority areas.

Dry recyclables, comprising paper, cardboard, metal and plastic containers, and now including glass for the first time in South Oxfordshire, will be collected fortnightly from a 240 litre wheeled bin at the kerbside, with residual waste being collected on the alternate week from a 180 litre wheeled bin.

Food waste will be collected weekly from a 25 litre kitchen caddie, while residents who subscribe to the green waste service will have their garden waste collected fortnightly from a dedicated wheeled bin. Just over 9,000 tonnes of green waste were diverted from landfill by both councils last year.

To ensure the same level of service to all residents, separate arrangements will be made for people in flats or households where it is difficult to store wheeled bins. Assisted collections for people with mobility problems will continue.

The carbon footprint of the service has been carefully considered and food waste will be collected by the same vehicles that collect from wheeled bins, reducing the number of vehicles on the road.

The new cleansing service will clean nearly 2,300 kilometres of highway (just over 3,700 tonnes of litter and waste was picked off the streets of both councils last year).

South Oxfordshire achieved a combined recycling and composting rate of 38.8% in 2007/8, and is aiming for 53% by 2015/16 (around 25,000 tonnes). Vale of White Horse hopes to lift its combined recycling and composting rate from 2007/8 32.7% to 50% (nearly 20,000 tonnes) over the same period.

In the run-up to the new contract starts, Verdant will source and deliver nearly 200,000 wheeled bins, and an equivalent number of kitchen caddies, for residents of both councils.

Nearly 160 staff handling recycling and refuse collections, street cleansing and green waste collections will transfer to Verdant’s employment, and the company also plans to recruit more staff. A substantial investment is being made in new vehicles to maximize service efficiency and productivity, and to reduce environmental impact.

The new fleet will include recycling and refuse collection trucks ranging from 26 to 32 tonnes, smaller collection vehicles (ranging from 15 tonnes to 3½ tonnes), and mechanical street cleansing machines.

The councils are also considering the option of the local Verdant depot providing a telephone-based recycling and refuse information service for local residents.

Mike Mackay, Vale of White Horse DC’s deputy director contracts and procurement, said: “We’ve appointed Verdant because it has an excellent track record in delivering service changes that make a real difference to improving recycling rates and weights.

“The company was already known to South Oxfordshire through its green waste scheme, and Verdant’s proposals struck the right balance of making changes for the better while making best use of public funds. We look forward to rolling out the new services and hope that all residents will respond positively and enthusiastically.”

Verdant managing director Roger Edwards said he and all his team were ‘delighted’ to be appointed what will be one of the company’s largest contracts amongst its 24 local authority customers.

He added: “We had faith in our proposals because we’ve got excellent operational experience in driving change that cuts waste going to landfill. Both councils have ambitious recycling targets and everyone at Verdant promises their utmost effort in helping them to meet and beat those targets.”

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About Verdant

Verdant Group Plc (www.verdant-group.co.uk), part of the fast-growing, recycling-led Greenstar UK group (www.greenstar.co.uk), provides high quality, efficient recycling, refuse, cleansing and grounds maintenance services for 24 local authorities in England, Wales and Scotland. It makes over 50 million recycling and refuse collections annually from nearly 800,000 households, and employs over 1,300 staff operating with 500+ vehicles. Hundreds of staff are participating in a government-backed skills and awareness training programme which leads to a recognised vocational qualification. Verdant’s Arun Green Waste Club in West Sussex won Best Partnership Project at the 2007 National Recycling Awards, and Verdant also won the Best Commitment to Health & Safety 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