Hounslow Council is celebrating the 19th annual National Recycle Week (Monday 17 October – Sunday 23 October).
Published: Thursday, 20th October 2022
The awareness week’s mission is simple: to encourage everyone in the UK to reduce their carbon footprint and protect our environment by recycling things the right way, and much more often.
Improving recycling rates is a top priority for the Council, with ambitions to achieve a 37% recycling rate by the end of the financial year 2022/23. Going further, Hounslow’s Reduction and Recycling Plan targets recycling rates of 45% by 2025, and 50% by 2030.
Promisingly, Hounslow residents are already showing a clear appetite for recycling more. The Council has seen:
- 16% more recycling collected between March 2020 to April 2021.
- 21,947 tonnes recycled between April 2021 – March 2022.
- A 6% year-on-year increase in cardboard recycling collected in April 2021 – March 2022.
Throughout National Recycle Week and beyond, Hounslow Council is encouraging its residents and businesses to remember the little things they can do to have a big impact on cutting down on all types of waste.
This includes:
• Residents separating paper and card in the blue box to make it easier for the recycling crews to sort this at the collection vehicle, enhancing the value recovered downstream.
• Aerosol cans being completely empty before being recycled in the red box.
• Residents never disposing of hidden batteries or electricals in rubbish or recycling bins.
Hounslow Council’s Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Climate, Environment and Transport Strategy, Councillor Kathrine Dunne, said: “Hounslow, and its partners, are proud to support the National Recycle Week campaign. Recycling is a key collective action we can all take to reduce unnecessary waste. It helps protect our environment, reduces carbon emissions and cuts costs too.
“However, recycling is a habit for life, not just for Recycle week. We will continue to offer innovative, convenient, and cost-effective recycling solutions for all residents in Hounslow throughout the year. And by getting involved with weekly recycling, residents play such a meaningful part in creating a greener and cleaner Hounslow.”
Dan Smyth, Director for Recycle 360 & Sustainability in Lampton, said: “Recycle 360 is proud to have been serving Hounslow residents for six years, collecting a wide range of recyclables and sorting and bulking them for sale from our state-of-the-art Materials Handling Facility in the borough. The facility has capacity to handle more material and we know that there is still a lot of recyclable and food waste finding its way into residents’ refuse bins. Not only does it cost the Council more to dispose of refuse, but by not recycling we lose the potential to generate more income from sales to help offset collection costs.
“We are also pleased to finally launch our business recycling collection services. We have new customers coming on board every day, and they have all been impressed by the quality and reliability of the service, especially compared to other operators who really let businesses down through the pandemic.”
To help create a greener and cleaner Hounslow, the Council is investing £3.8m to tackle waste, litter, and improve recycling rates with its partners West London Waste Authority and Lampton Recycle 360.
The Council was also recently recognised for its Flats Communal Food Waste Service, which has seen 24,100 households across 218 sites benefitting from the service, and has generated disposal cost savings of more than £57,000 this year alone. Such efforts were recognised when the project received a nomination for the National Recycling Awards.
Businesses in the borough are also being helped to recycle more and manage waste more efficiently through services such as Lampton Recycle 360’s commercial collection service. It offers a range of recycling services, including specialist advice to help reduce business costs.
