Baroness Hanham, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Communities and Local Government, has paid a visit to Countrystyle Group’s Ridham facility near Sittingbourne, to see first-hand the wide range of materials recycled there. Countrystyle specialise in reclaiming waste to create new products, thereby minimising waste sent to landfill.
Countrystyle has teamed up with Remade South East on a range of recycling projects at Ridham. The aim of Remade South East is to expand the successful waste market development activities across the South East of England. With its specialist knowledge in waste management and recycling, Countrystyle is the perfect partner to work with Remade.
This work at Ridham is part of a Remade project which aims to develop markets for many unwanted items such as carpets, mattresses, plasterboard, waste wood, furniture and bulky plastic items. The project is Funded by the European Regional development Fund (ERDF) and the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) through the South East ERDF Competitiveness programme 2007-2013.
Countrystyle is also a partner in the ERDF funded ZeroWISE Food Waste Solutions Project, working with Remade South East to research the best methods for small businesses to recycle their food waste rather than sending it to landfill.
As a keen supporter of environmental projects, Baroness Hanham visited the facility to see some of the various reprocessing activities that are used by Countrystyle and to learn more about the partnership between Countrystyle and Remade. The three main recycling processes at Ridham are: 
- Food and green waste, processing up to 45,000 tonnes each year. This is converted into a high quality ‘PAS100 Quality Protocol’ soil conditioner, used primarily for local agriculture.
- Waste wood, largely from Household Waste Recycling Centres, is processed and used to manufacture new panel board.
- Plasterboard is separated out into paper and gypsum, with the recycled gypsum being used by a local manufacturer as part of new plasterboard and other gypsum-based products.
After the visit Baroness Hanham commented: “It’s very encouraging to see how European Regional Development Fund grant funding has helped businesses and social enterprises in the South East of England to develop new markets for waste resources. The effectiveness of this support has been demonstrated through tangible environmental gains such as the diversion of over 130,000 tonnes of waste from landfill since the three projects began in January 2009.”