Aberdeen City Council shortlisted for three top national awards
30 September 2016
Aberdeen City Council has been shortlisted for prestigious awards in three categories at the Scottish Resources Conference taking place at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre next week (Wednesday 5 and Thursday 6 October).
The awards, sponsored by the Chartered Institute of Wastes Management and Zero Waste Scotland, recognise the exceptional achievements of organisations and individuals striving for a zero waste society. Aberdeen City Council has been nominated for Best Food Waste Initiative, Best Litter Prevention Initiative (for Clean Up Aberdeen) and Best Health and Safety Initiative in Resource and Waste (for the council’s Waste and Recycling Service).
Councillor Jean Morrison, Zero Waste sub-committee convener at Aberdeen City Council said: “I am absolutely delighted that the imagination, creativity and sheer hard work of our officers and teams has been recognised at such an prestigious event.
“The nominations are very well deserved and everyone involved has made a great contribution to a zero waste Aberdeen”.
The council’s Food Waste project involved the introduction of food recycling for over 30,000 properties across Aberdeen to bring the city in line with the requirements of the Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2012.
This project was focussed on areas where the provision of recycling services is known to be a particular challenge – multi-occupancy properties such as flats and tenements.
The Clean Up Aberdeen initiative included The Glitterpick which was organised by Aberdeen City Council’s environmental team and was designed to help make the city sparkle more in the summer months, resulted in about 300 black bin bags full of rubbish.
Teams, including school pupils, residents and a variety of local organisations managed all 24 hours in 24 different locations on 24 June with the weather ranging from glorious sunshine to heavy downpours.
The Waste and Recycling Service’s Health and Safety improvement programme saw the appointment of a Safety and Compliance Officer to put in place a range of measures for the waste collection service.
The measures included risk assessment of over 300 collection routes, a training and development programme for staff, a new monitoring process, a review of protective equipment and the staff safety handbook and an exploration of technological options to ensure swift action on health and safety issues.