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PRESS RELEASE

To be released immediately: 26 July 1999

CRN - UK'S LARGEST PROVIDER OF KERBSIDE COLLECTIONS

The Community Recycling Network (CRN) is now the largest provider of householder separated kerbside collections in the UK. CRN members currently service 760,546 households in Britain, mainly with weekly collections. Recent research by the CRN shows the total number of households offered a recycling service by a CRN member to be 4,121,788.

The growth of the not-for-profit sector in the UK has reached explosive proportions during the last two years. The CRN's members have become major players in the waste management sector, a fact which was recognised in the recent draft waste strategy.

Kerbside collectors in the community sector includes Avon Friends of the Earth who supply kerbside collections in collections in Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset, South Gloucestershire and Stroud and District. ECT Recycling currently cover Ealing, Hounslow, Brent, Lambeth and Vale of the White Horse. Other examples of providers of kerbside in the community sector includes Emerge (Manchester), Magpie (Brighton), South Molton Recycling (Devon) Islington Waste Savers (London), Newport Waste Savers (Newport, Wales), Alloa Community Enterprise (Alloa, Scotland).

Other services by CRN members includes bring schemes, furniture and appliance re-use projects, community composting, scrap store activities, waste exchanges, waste education, waste minimisation projects, office and retail collections and computer recycling schemes

Andy Moore, Co-ordinator of the Community Recycling Network said:

"Environmentally motivated, non-profit organisations can deliver a cost effective service. Too often the community sector is the invisible sector, but this statistical achievement proves that our members do much more than they get credit for."

"Our mission is to empower communities and individuals to take the greatest possible responsibility for their waste stream, to let them visibly minimise and control their environmental impact."

"For domestic waste, source separation by householders is the best way forward, so they can see the waste they are generating, material by material. it informs and prepares the householder in the most hands-on way to think about waste minimisation when purchasing. From another angle, it's simply good for business to have the client do as much of the work as possible, minimising the amount of expensive MRF (Materials Recycling Facility) kit the collecting agent needs."

NOTES TO THE EDITOR:

The Community Recycling Network is a national umbrella organisation representing over 250 community recycling and waste management projects throughout the UK.

CRN member organisations collectively provide recycling services to over 4 million people, 14,000 businesses and 2,000 schools and colleges. Members include local authority kerbside subcontractors, community composting schemes, collectors of commercial waste paper, scrapstores, furniture recyclers and waste minimisation, education and re-use projects.

The CRN's aim is to promote community recycling as a practical and effective way of tackling the UK's growing waste problem. Our members work together to promote sustainable waste management and continue to have a pioneering effect on the development of Local Agenda 21, whilst achieving some of the highest recycling rates in the UK.

For more information about the Community Recycling Network, please contact Anna Maris, Publicity Officer on 0117 942 0142. Community Recycling Network, 10-12 Picton Street, Montpelier, Bristol BS6 5QA.

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