Compost firm helps trainers to grow jobs

Sep 25 2008 by Karen Dent, The Journal

A business that diverts green waste from landfill sites to create organic compost is also helping to grow jobs in Northumberland, as Karen Dent reports.

A PIONEERING environmental business has teamed up with a training company to help to grow its own crop of potential employees.

Com-Vert, which operates in north and south Northumberland, is working with Training Solutions North East to help jobseekers in the county gain skills and experience in the workplace.

The environmental firm was established in 2001 as a farm diversification project to collect garden waste, which it converts into organic compost to be sold via civic amenity (CA) sites.

Director Dan Robinson, who set up the company with his father Joe at their organic farm at Shieldykes in Northumberland, said the business model was unique in the county when Com-Vert began trading.

“We were the first. The south led the way in organics really,” he said. “The market didn’t really exist. We had to persuade the district councils in the north of the county to try the collection. At the northern site, we had to explain the fundamentals of the thing. Now, people know what composting is.

“In the north of the county, we worked through trials with Alnwick District Council to implement green waste collection. In the south, we helped SITA to implement it.”

The majority of Com-Vert’s customers are local authorities, although it does deal with some private contractors. By collecting green waste separately for recycling, councils are able to divert it from landfill sites and are better able to meet Government demands on reducing the amount of rubbish that is disposed of in this way. Com-Vert is now processing 20,000 tonnes of waste annually.

The Soil Association-certified organic compost is produced at Com-Vert’s sites near Newton on the Moor in north Northumberland and at the SITA-managed site between Ellington and Ashington. The end product is sold at the civic amenity sites where people go to recycle their rubbish and unwanted goods.

“It’s a really good way to do it, if you sell a quality garden product next to the skip where you recycle, it encourages people to recycle more,” said Mr Robinson.

“People are more aware of green issues and methods of combating environmental problems.”

The business, which tends to be quite seasonal in nature with a peak in the summer months, has eight full-time staff. One of the workers was employed after taking part in the scheme with Training Solutions, which has now been running at Com-Vert for around six months.

“We have had up to three at once, we have employed one full time and there is one on the scheme at the minute,” said Mr Robinson.

“It sounded like a good deal to us. We have now subscribed more into the idea of it. It became quite a good way to recruit.

“Students on work placements with Com-Vert get to try their hand at a whole range of different tasks and duties which also helps to dispel any stereotyped views people may have about waste recycling work.”

Not all job hunters who take part in the training scheme are offered a permanent position at Com-Vert but they do gain valuable skills to help get them back on track and find work, according to Training Solutions North East’s director Victoria Bell.

“Links with employers like Com-Vert are a great way of helping springboard job hunters back into the workplace and they are also highly beneficial for employers themselves,” she said.

“The employer link partnership we operate is proving to be a real win-win situation for all involved. Not only does a work placement give people the opportunity to learn new skills or perhaps try out a new career route, placements are an incredibly useful way for employers to develop new and reduced cost recruitment channels and assess potential job candidates as well.”

Com-Vert has recently invested £350,000 in new machinery to boost efficiency and is looking at further ways to expand.

Mr Robinson says the business will need more employees when it does and he considers the training scheme to be an ideal method of discovering whether people are right for the business. “Sustainability is central to Com-Vert’s ethos and this applies to community involvement and participation in schemes such as Training Solutions’ employer link partnership as much as our business activity,” said Mr Robinson.

“Certainly, we have plans to grow, and as we grow, we will need them more.”

But before it can expand further, Mr Robinson is looking at how to make the business less seasonal in nature.

He said “It slows down a lot in the winter. It correlates exactly with when people are in their gardens. I’m trying to find ways of levelling off that peak and trough.”