500 London Flats Receive Mini Recycling Banks

1 November 2011

A new recycling initiative has been launched in Hammersmith & Fulham (H&F) to get more people living in blocks of flats to recycle by installing mini banks

The council last week installed recycling mini-banks on the landings of flats in Cobbs Hall, Boxmoore House, Horton House, Linacre House and Verulam House, with more going into suitable blocks on Cheeseman's Terrace this week.

The mini-banks will make it easier for residents living in 500 flats to dispose of their recycling, as they will no longer need to take their recycling to the ground floor smart banks. The majority of the banks are located next to refuse chutes, making recycling as easy as disposing of normal rubbish.

Residents included in the scheme have also been given a new reusable bag that can be used to store recycling at home and then transport it to the mini-bank.

Cabinet member for residents' services, Cllr Greg Smith, said: "Recycling has never been so important, since the cost of disposing of rubbish rose by 20 percent earlier this year. It now costs £128 to dispose of just over a ton of waste, compared to just £73 for just over a ton for recycling and the best ways for the council to avoid paying the high cost of waste disposal is for residents to recycle as much as possible."

An incredible two tons of recycling is now being collected from the Edward Woods Estate every week as a result of H&F Council's push to get more residents living in flats recycling regularly chute recycling initiative, which was introduced during July. Flats make up around 70 percent of properties in the borough but the recycling rate from flats, before the project, was estimated at just 10 percent.

Since July, the council has converted 27 refuse chutes so that they can be used for recycling and this has improved recycling facilities for 1,500 households. Prior to the chute conversion, there was an average of 1.2 tons of recycling per week collected from the Edward Woods Estate, now that figure is 1.98 ton - a 60 percent increase.

Smart Banks have been installed at 18 new locations and just under 20,000 properties have been visited by recycling experts, who have been on hand to offer advice and reusable bags.

Click on www.lbhf.gov.uk/recycling for details of your nearest recycling facilities.

Call the Cleaner, Greener Hotline on 020 8753 1100 between 8am and 8pm Monday to Friday, or email Cleaner.Greener@lbhf.gov.uk

Visit www.lbhf.gov.uk/flatsrecycling

Darrel Moore