Compulsory Recycling Comes To Hackney
London Borough of Hackney's website – February 2006
From 27 February it is compulsory for many residents in Hackney to separate their waste for recycling.
In the affected wards residents are required to use their green box to recycle glass, tins and paper. However, it is important that everyone takes responsibility for the waste that they produce. Residents in street level properties in the Brownswood, Lordship, Clissold and Stoke Newington Central wards have been sent a letter from Deputy Mayor, Cllr Jessica Crowe, explaining the changes. They will also have a home visit from the recycling team as well as be able to attend a series of road shows.
Why Recycle?
Recycling is quick and easy! It's about making a simple choice between putting items in your bin or recycling them. Your rubbish takes up less space as you recycle more, and you'll be doing something good for your community as well.
Recycling saves the energy needed to create new products, which reduces the pollution that has been linked to climate change. Recycling also saves natural resources like minerals, trees and water. The cost of disposing of household waste is getting more expensive as the UK runs out of space to bury rubbish. To reduce the amount of waste, the Government has set targets for how much local councils must recycle. If Hackney fails to reach these targets, it will receive heavy fines that may impact on you as a resident. Compulsory recycling will assist meeting the government's targets.
Factfile
- In Hackney we produce enough rubbish to fill London Fields seven times each year.
- By recycling a one metre high pile of newspapers you can save one tree.
- If all aluminium drinks cans sold in the UK were recycled, there would be 14 million fewer full dustbins per year.
- An average UK household produces a huge one tonne of rubbish each year.
- In the UK, a shocking 30% to 40% of food produced is never eaten – a quarter of all the rubbish we throw away is food.