SOUTH OXON’S STUNNING PERFORMANCE HITS 70% RECYCLING

31st August 2009 - Residents of South Oxfordshire District Council (SODC) have produced a ‘stunning’ performance following the early June launch of the district’s new, completely redesigned recycling and refuse collection service.

Since municipal services contractor Verdant launched the new service on 8th June, South Oxfordshire’s recycling and composting rate has been running at around 71 per cent. This is nearly double the council’s 2007/08 recycling rate of 38 per cent which then ranked it 124th out of 394 councils on the government‘s official league table.

According to the latest published figures, this performance would place the council amongst the highest performing in the UK.

Verdant provides an integrated recycling, refuse and street cleansing service for South Oxfordshire District Council Oxfordshire’s 56,813 households, and will start a similar service for its neighbour, Vale of White Horse District Council and its 50,782 homes, in October 2010. This contract, Verdant’s first for joint councils, runs for 8½ years and is valued in excess of £50 million.

115,000 Weekly Collections
Each week, Verdant crews make almost 115,000 collections across the district that comprises urban centres like Henley, villages and rural properties.

As the new service involved a big service change, it was expected that missed collections would rise while crews were getting used to the changes. However, such misses have since reduced to an acceptable level of less than 50 per 100,000 (a 99.95% success rate).

Around 300 residents have also requested larger recycling bins while an estimated 100 householders who were using sacks have asked for bins instead.

David Dodds, SODC Cabinet member for commercial services, said: “All I can say is that these early results are simply stunning. I can’t praise residents enough for the way they have supported and responded to the new scheme.

“I know the introduction of the new service was frustrating for some residents as it brought with it a number of teething problems. Thankfully, the vast majority of these have been resolved and the few problems remaining are largely to do with vehicle access and assisted collections, and they are being sorted out.”

‘Phenomenal Support’
Verdant managing director Roger Edwards said that residents’ support for the new scheme has been ‘phenomenal’, adding ‘they must be applauded for their efforts in producing such impressive figures’.

He added: “On behalf of everyone involved with the service, I’d like to thank residents for their support, patience and understanding. Every new contract has challenges when it starts up, and this contract was no exception. But working together, we successfully addressed them, and that’s why I know we can look to the future with great confidence.”

Edwards reminded residents that the current high volumes of green waste being recycled would decline during winter, and so the overall recycling rate is likely to drop from its current 71%.

Ends
Notes to editors
The top recycling and composting rate in the 2007/08 league table compiled by Defra was East Lindsey District Council with 58.42%. All of the top ten in that year achieved rates of over 50%.

In the three relevant weeks in June, South Oxfordshire’s residents recycled a total 1,764.76 tonnes of dry recyclables, green waste and food waste, while generating around 733.54 tonnes of refuse, so achieving a recycling rate of 70.64%.

In the full month of July, around 2,521.88 tonnes of dry, green and food recyclables was collected, and 1,009.71 tonnes of refuse sent to landfill, producing a recycling rate of 71.41%.

From 8th June to 31st July, residents collected 4,286 tonnes of dry recyclables, green and food waste, and sent 1,743.25 tonnes of refuse to landfill. Of an average 100 tonnes of potential waste produced by residents, 28.97% was refuse, 39.14% was dry recyclables, 18.07% was green waste, and 13.77% was food waste. The tiny remaining fraction (0.04%) comprised recyclables from glass banks and bring banks.

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 55 million recycling and refuse collections annually from nearly 1.1 million households, and employs over 1,600 staff operating with 600+ 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