Contract Signed

SHANKS GROUP PLC
4 October 1999


Shanks Signs New MBM Disposal Contract

Waste management company Shanks Group plc has successfully concluded
previously reported negotiations with the Intervention Board and agreed a new
three-year contract, worth £16 million, to destroy a total of 190,000 tonnes
of rendered meat and bone meal (MBM) from the Government's precautionary Over
Thirty Month Scheme cattle cull.

Additional waste-to-energy plant will be installed on the Fawley site, near
Southampton, to service the contract which will commence in March 2001.  On
completion of the contract the plant will be available for other wastes.

The existing three-year contract from the Intervention Board - to destroy up
to a maximum of 45,000 tonnes of MBM within the existing plant at Fawley - has
been extended by three months and now ends in March 2000.


For further information contact: John Shaughnessy, Group Head of External
Relations, Shanks Group plc, Tel: [phone]