THE BEST COMMUNITY INITIATIVE - Sponsored by
Shanks Group plc
The community composting sector is very diverse; projects range in scale from individuals or small groups working on allotment sites or promoting home composting, to social enterprises with Local Authority contracts providing kerbside collection services. The common theme is that the local community is directly involved in the management of the organic waste they are producing and are not-for-profit and locally accountable organisations. Backed by a number of new funding streams and an increasing awareness of the environmental and social benefits, the sector has seen significant growth over recent years and this category rewards the best in the sector.
2005 WINNERS
ABERDEEN FORWARD
Aberdeen Forward is an environmental company set up to encourage local groups and organisations to take an active role in improving the way waste is managed in Aberdeen City. Working in close partnership with the City Council. Aberdeen Forward have developed a network of small scale community composting sites and composting on allotment sites across the city. The sites have been developed with the aim of providing social benefits in the form of training and facilities for young homeless people. In addition to the composting sites, Aberdeen Forward and their enthusiastic volunteers operate a kitchen waste collection scheme in two areas of the city.
The judges were particularly impressed by the way Aberdeen Forward engaged the community by encouraging a high level of interaction which was resulting in a highly successful network of community composting sites across Aberdeen.
Conference, Exhibitions and Awards 2006
The Composting Association
Previous Winners
2004 - ECLRP & London Borough of Hackney
2003 - Fairfield Materials Management
Shanks is one of Europe's largest independent waste and resource management companies. In 1994 the group sold its remaining construction interest, to concentrate solely on waste management. Since then Shanks have increased the range of its waste management services as the Group has grown significantly, taking its first steps into Belgium and Holland in 1998.
The new combined UK Shanks Waste Management is responding well to the changing UK waste market. Increases in landfill tax and local authority waste diversion requirements are helping to drive the market towards the innovative technological solutions available to Shanks.
Almost 1,200 people are employed by Shanks within the UK. New and existing employees are adequately inducted and trained to enable them to carry out their work effectively.
Shanks provides collection services to remove all varieties of waste including general construction, domestic clearance, bricks, rubble, concrete and hardcore. These are collected using skip loaders, trucks with removable containers and roll on roll off containers. Shanks works in partnership with Local Authorities to provide waste solutions throughout England, Scotland and Wales, including municipal waste collection and recycling, disposal, cleansing services, and waste by rail.
Shanks is promoting a new approach to waste, composting and recycling opposed to landfill and incineration called the Intelligent Transfer System it's a method for the treatment of municipal solid waste. Shanks remediate contaminated sites using a range of technologies; excavation, haulage and disposal, containment, stabilisation, water treatment,
thermal treatment, soil washing and bioremediation. Shanks has developed expertise and infrastructure to recover value from waste materials through recycling.
Shanks is a leading player in the integrated waste management services PFI/PPP sector in the UK. Argyll & Bute council was the first PDI contract to be awarded to Shanks in September 2001. This contract is based on the provision of in-vessel composting technology for the treatment of mixed Municipal Solid Waste composting at three different sites totalling an estimate 39,000 tonnes being recycled and diverted from landfill per annum.
For further information about the Shanks and its activities please visit our website www.shanks.co.uk or contact us at info@shanks.co.uk or 08000 28 28 77.