Pupils and staff at St. Bede’s College in Manchester have been receiving an education in waste management and recycling from Fresh Start.
The independent Roman Catholic co-educational college was welcomed on board as a valued customer in November last year.
Since then, we have helped the college – located in Alexandra Park – to halve the amount of general waste it produces each week by embracing recycling.
“We genuinely care about providing exceptional service and building strong relationships so that our customers enjoy working with us long-term,” says our Senior Commercial Development Manager Sean Martins.
“I am delighted that our team has been able to bring some much-needed consistency of service to St. Bede’s, who had been let down on several occasions by their previous provider.
‘Mr Louis d’Arcy became Head Teacher in January and he has shown a real appetite for recycling. With his support – and working alongside the college’s Site Manager, Noel McGoff – we have been able to introduce recycling containers to the classrooms of the Regis Building and in the teachers’ breakout room. Pupils and staff are now able to correctly segregate their waste, which allows for more recycling to take place.”
Meals are served daily in the College Dining Room, with pupils having access to fresh food sourced from local and regional suppliers. Chefs are trained and encouraged by catering contractors Holroyd Howe to take a minimum-fuss approach during preparation and cooking to keep the natural goodness in the food.
Building upon this simplicity ethos, Fresh Start has provided food waste bins in the kitchen to facilitate the easy collection of plate scrapings. These are then taken away to be heated and broken down, which creates renewable gas. Once it has been cleaned and fed into the national gas grid, the gas is then returned to people’s homes and businesses for cooking and heating.
“I have delivered two educational assemblies at the college – explaining to the pupils how they can do their bit to help us to recover as much waste as possible for recycling,” adds Sean.
“To engage their interest, I initially did some myth-busting, which involved challenging their ideas about what can and can’t be recycled. I got tonnes of questions, which is a great reflection of the level of confidence in the pupils that St. Bede’s works hard to nurture.”
Noel McGoff reflects on the college’s journey so far: “Having had an inconsistent service from our previous waste collectors, it’s great to be working with Fresh Start!
“We are very happy with the service being provided and to now be making steady progress with introducing recycling across our college buildings. Sean Martins has been very helpful; our pupils really enjoyed his assemblies.”
St Bede’s College was founded in 1876 by Cardinal Vaughan, who was Bishop of Salford at the time. Initially situated on Grosvenor Square just off Oxford Road, the college moved to its present site in 1877 after acquiring the former Manchester Aquarium Building.
For more details – including admissions information – visit the St. Bede’s College website.
