Blackburn Renews Verdant Contract
Tuesday 8th June 2010
Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council has renewed its contract with municipal services specialist Verdant for a further 10 years.
The fourth of Verdant’s municipal customers to renew or extend contracts in recent months, the Blackburn with Darwen renewal brings the total value of such contracts to over £80 million.
Blackburn’s renewed contract started in May and continues Verdant’s efficient collection of single stream commingled dry recyclables from wheeled bins used by the council’s 59,000 households. Verdant is purchasing five vehicles to operate the service efficiently and reduce carbon impact.
Peter Hunt, director of regeneration and environment, said: "Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council is pleased that Verdant has been successful in being re-awarded the recycling contract as it allows the residents to continue with their easy recycling system in the one 240 litre wheelie bin. This system has allowed good recycling rates of around 44% for the Borough. We look forward to several more years of working with Verdant."
According to Verdant development director Pete Dickson, the contract renewal is a ‘sign of the council’s faith in the professionalism of Verdant’s staff’. He added: “The council’s recycling performance in the last couple of years has accelerated sharply, partly thanks to the single stream commingled collection system we operate. Verdant looks forward to working with the council and all residents to push the rate ever-higher.”
Collected recyclables, averaging over 1,100 tonnes a month, are currently tipped and bulked at the Darwen waste management facility operated by Greenstar before being transferred for processing at its Aldridge ‘super MRF’ (materials recycling facility) in the West Midlands.
This arrangement will continue while Verdant develops plans to build a new MRF in the borough to process single stream commingled collections of dry recyclables. The proposed new plant will improve service efficiency, reduce carbon impact and create local jobs.
Plastic bottles will however continue to be sent for processing to specialist plastics recycler Greenstar WES in Redcar.
Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council is the top dry recycling local authority in the North West, and is also ranked in the top 20 authorities for dry recycling nationally, based on DEFRA statistics for 2008/09.