Shanks helps Glasgow shopping centre to zero-waste

RNS Number : 5037K

Shanks Group PLC

22 August 2012

 



Shanks Group plc

Shanks helps Glasgow shopping centre achieve zero-waste to landfill in six weeks

Silverburn Shopping Centre recycling rate increases from 9 per cent to 97 per cent, with a cost saving of over 50 per cent per month.

Leading international waste management business, Shanks Group plc, today announces that customer, Silverburn Shopping Centre, is now sending none of its waste to landfill. An achievement reached just six weeks after winning the contract.

Silverburn Shopping Centre, home to more than 130 retail stores with a footfall of 14 million customers annually, is owned by Hammerson and situated in Pollok, Glasgow, Scotland. 

All general waste is processed at Shanks' recycling facility at Blochairn, Glasgow, and organic waste to its anaerobic digestion plant at Cumbernauld, where it is converted into biogas for renewable energy generation and digestate for use as a nutrient-rich soil conditioner. The remaining three per cent which cannot be recycled is sent for energy recovery.

Before Shanks had the contract, only glass and cardboard were recycled - 9 percent of the total waste from Silverburn Shopping Centre - resulting in expensive landfill costs (tax and gate fees). Now, Shanks recycles on average sixty tonnes of waste a month, saving the owners of Silverburn more than 50 per cent in costs, not to mention significantly reducing their environmental impact.

Central to the success of the partnership is the intensive training period for retailers in the first two weeks of the contract where Shanks Customer Relationship Manager, Michelle McColgan, and Craig Francis, Environmental Services Manager for Silverburn, visited every store to advise retailers on how to separate their waste and the process for waste collection. This was backed-up with invaluable support and assistance from the Silverburn Shopping Centre Management Team, headed by General Manager David Pierotti.

Ian Goodfellow, UK MD of Shanks commended the team on their achievement:

"We are delighted with the speed of progress made at Silverburn. At Shanks, our focus is on ensuring that the maximum amount of waste can be recycled or recovered as clean energy. Achieving zero-waste in just six weeks is fantastic, particularly given the shopping centre's size. Importantly, this achievement shows that zero waste is a very realistic goal for any organisation."

The contract with Shanks is managed by GBM Support Services Group.

John McPherson, Director for Scotland at GBM said of the partnership with Shanks:

"We chose Shanks because of its focus on sustainable waste management, knowing that they would ensure as much waste as possible is diverted from landfill and instead treated like the valuable resource it is. With the Blochairn and Cumbernauld facilities so close too, Shanks seemed like the perfect solution."

22 August 2012

For further information please contact:

Austen Lees, Head of Corporate Communications, Shanks Group Plc

Telephone [phone], mobile [phone], email [e-mail]

Shanks Group Plc is one of Europe's leading waste management businesses with operations in the Netherlands, Belgium, United Kingdom and Canada.

The company provides a range of recycling and energy recovery solutions to customers in both the public and private sector. The Group employs over 4,000 employees and last year it handled 7.7 million tonnes of waste achieving and overall recycling and recovery rate of 77%. The Group has a significant organic waste treatment capacity of over 1 million tonnes.

Shanks is a FTSE 250 company listed on the London Stock Exchange. In May 2011 it reported annual revenues of £717 million and trading profits of £49.7 million. The company was established in 1880 and is based in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire.

For more information visit www.shanksplc.com

 

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