Shanks Group Awarded Large Contract in Europe

Shanks Group Plc, based Buckinghamshire, U.K., announced that it has received the first major European waste management contract from the consumer products company Unilever. According to a published report, Shanks will manage all of Unilever's waste in Belgium and the Netherlands.

In receiving the contract, Shanks says that it expects to recycle up to 90 percent of Unilever’s waste, which will help the consumer products company achieve its 2020 target of maintaining or reducing total waste sent for disposal against a 2008 baseline.

The contract, which began April 1, 2011, will initially run for three years and will involve Shanks handling up to 15,000 metric tons of commercial and organic waste per year. Office and other commercial waste will be processed through Shanks' existing network of recycling facilities to recover recyclable materials including cardboard, paper and plastics.

The global consumer products company Unilever has more than 400 products and markets its products in more than 180 countries.