Keenan Recycling has secured a further five-year contract with an estimated value of around £5m with SUEZ recycling and recovery UK (SUEZ).
Having successfully delivered this service for 18 years, Keenan Recycling has been re-awarded the new contract by SUEZ on behalf of Aberdeen City Council. Under the contract, the Aberdeen-based organic waste recycling company will recycle all household garden and food waste from the city’s brown bin service and recycling centres.
Aberdeen City Council has been at the forefront of providing an organic waste recycling service in Scotland for many years. The partnership SUEZ developed with Keenan Recycling in 2002 enabled the Council to provide a garden waste collection service and then subsequently a food waste collection service when it became a legal requirement.
As a result of demand across the city for organic waste recycling, Keenan Recycling secured a grant from WRAP (Waste And Resource Action Programme) in 2008 which was part of an initial investment of £3.2m to build a state of the art In-vessel composting facility to handle the city’s organic waste.
Grant Keenan, managing director of Keenan Recycling said: “The introduction of tighter food waste recycling legislation has brought continued growth in our client base and tonnage levels. We’re pleased to continue delivering a friendly, flexible and reliable service to our long-standing local partner SUEZ and Aberdeen City Council who divert the household food waste of the almost 230,000 residents of Aberdeen from landfill to dedicated recycling facilities.”
The increasing focus on sustainability in recent years and the continued need to dramatically reduce the volume of food waste going to landfill, have caused a further shift in attitudes.
Mr Keenan added: “As the pressure mounts for everyone to become more environmentally conscious in a bid to tackle climate change, more and more households want to dispose of their waste in a more sustainable way. Participating in this service allows residents to play their part in helping to save the planet.”
SUEZ, who have been managing the city’s recycling, composting, treatment and disposal of household waste since 2000, are working with the council to devise new initiatives to meet the requirements raised by the Scottish Zero Waste Plan, which include recycling targets of 70% by 2025 and a target to reduce food waste by 33% by 2025.
SUEZ operations manager, Colin Forshaw, said: “Here at SUEZ, we want to create a society where there is no more waste. By continuing to work with Keenan Recycling, we’ll be putting the city’s household garden and food waste to good use by turning it into compost at Keenan’s plant in New Deer. The compost will be used in the agriculture and horticulture industry instead of going to landfill. By keeping it local, we also help to keep our carbon footprint to a minimum.”
Grant Keenan of Keenan Recycling and Colin Forshaw of SUEZ