Recycle Now

Monday June 8, 2009

With Recycling Week just around the corner, there really is no better time to get into the recycling habit.

This year, Recycling Week starts on Monday June 22 and aims to encourage people to try something new in an effort to go green and cut back on their waste.

H&F residents recycled 27 per cent of household waste during 2007/8. The council picked up a massive 15,700 tonnes of recyclable material - paper and cardboard, glass, cans and tins, plastic bottles and drinks and food cartons - through its orange sack doorstep collections. With your help, these results could be even better.

As part of the Recycling Week campaign, the council will be hosting a number of stalls at various locations. Useful tips will be provided on how to make recycling easier and officers will be handing out reusable cotton bags so that shoppers do not need to use plastic carrier bags that so often end up in landfill.

Stalls take place on:

• Wednesday June 24, West 12 Shopping Centre, Shepherds Bush, 10am to 4pm
• Thursday, June 25, Kings Mall, Hammersmith, 10am to 4pm
• Friday, June 26, Fulham Broadway Shopping Centre, 10am to 4pm

The council is particularly keen to encourage recycling during these tough economic times as it works to keep its landfill charges down to a minimum. As well as helping the environment, recycling also means that the council can save money - and that will help drive down council tax costs.

Cllr Greg Smith, cabinet member for crime and street scene, said: "Very few people realise just how expensive it is for the council to send our waste to landfill. In fact, landfill rates have almost doubled in the last two years. The best ways for H&F to avoid paying these onerous taxes is for residents to recycle as much as possible. With Recycling Week soon to be upon us, now is the perfect time to get the recycling bug.”

The council introduced same day waste and recycling collections earlier this year and now both recyling and rubbish is collected on the same vehicle in separate compartments - making it even easier to do the right thing.  Residents are being urged to do four things that will help to boost the recycling figures. They are:

• Put your rubbish and recycling out at the right time (after 9.00pm on the day before collection or before 6.00am on collection day).
• Use heavy-duty black sacks for refuse, not carrier bags that easily break and spill onto the street.
• Put securely tied sacks or dustbins out for collection at the front of their garden or path.
• Store rubbish securely between collections to prevent foxes and vermin ripping bags.

Cllr Smith added: "We'd like to say a big 'thank you' to all our residents who recycle every week and ask those who do not do so yet, to help us to continue to keep your council tax low by getting the recycling bug."

What can you recycle with the council?

• You can put the following in the borough's Smart recycling banks or orange sacks:
  Paper and card - Newspapers, magazines, catalogues, directories, leaflets, loose paper, card and cardboard (please flatten)
  Glass - Glass bottles and jars (no lids please)
  Cans, tins and aerosols
  Plastic bottles (please remove lids from plastic bottles and squash them if possible)
  Paper-based drinks and liquid food cartons (eg Tetra Paks)