ABLE History
The ABLE (Andrew Barker Lepton Employment) Project was originally set up to close the recycling loop. At the same time aiming to provide employment opportunities for young people from the Wakefield area with a history of substance misuse.
The ABLE Project developed through the Green Business Network’s (GBN) involvement in cardboard recycling. Trials into using shredded cardboard for animal bedding proved very successful, with the end product being ideal for composting. A composting operation at Huddersfield Community Farm was set up, which combined both bedding use and composting in a specially constructed wormery.
Benefits to the scheme included: Reducing the volumes of waste going to landfill and save money for local businesses and Huddersfield Community Farm. The scheme also generated revenue from the sale of products (compost, plant-food, and worms to local anglers).
The idea for the ABLE project was to take this recycling one step further, by creating a sustainable use for the used animal bedding. Following the donation of a site at Lepton Equestrian Centre, near Huddersfield, a pilot project was set up. Composting beds were established, using worms to break down the soiled cardboard. An innovative fish tank system was set up to produce fish (Siberian Sturgeon) that would eat the excess worms from the composting beds.
During the initial pilot phase of the project, ten trainees with a background of substance misuse benefited from a full time employment opportunity for a period of 12 months. During this time they gained work experience and marketable work skills in a supportive environment.
Yorkshire Water were so impressed by the pilot project that they offered the 34 acre site at Caldervale sewage treatment works on which work progressed in August 2003 and where the project is now based.
