Hillingdon residents encouraged to sign up to waste reduction challenge
Tuesday 22 August 2023: Back by popular demand, and ahead of October's Recycle Week, Hillingdon Council is calling on residents to reduce their household waste, reuse items from around the home and recycle more by taking part in its third Zero Waste Challenge.
Subscribers will receive a weekly email from the council with recycling and zero waste tips to help them reduce the amount of waste they produce and the money they spend. They will need to complete short online surveys during the month to track their progress by logging the number of black bags, clear recycling sacks and food waste bags used.
Eighty residents completed the last challenge in April, with great results. They reduced their food waste by more than 11 per cent by auditing their food cupboards and planning meals, this helped them to save money. General waste decreased by eight per cent across participants and kerbside recycling increased by three per cent. Residents also used other recycling schemes such as Podback for coffee machine pods, plastic bag recycling at supermarkets and disposed of batteries at Hillingdon libraries and bigger supermarkets.
Nikki from Hillingdon took part and won the prize draw. She said: "I'm passionate about recycling and keen on recycling food waste. I would encourage more people to recycle - it's free, easy and good for the environment."
Unlike many local authorities, Hillingdon continues to offer residents free, weekly and easy-to-use household waste, dry recycling, food waste and garden waste collections.
The council is committed to increasing the borough's recycling rates. Since food waste started to be collected separately from garden waste (between 2021/22 and 2022/23) there has been a 17 per cent increase in food waste recycling.
In September 2021, the council launched a partnership with TRAID for textile recycling collections. Since then,130 tonnes of textiles have been collected from homes across the borough for reuse and recycling.
Cllr Eddie Lavery, Hillingdon Council's Cabinet Member for Residents' Services, said: "It's important that we all do everything we can to help create a greener and more sustainable borough for future generations, and reusing items from around the home, wasting less and recycling more is an excellent first step.
"It's fantastic to see that our recycling rates are increasing, and I hope that more residents will be encouraged to take on our Zero Waste Challenge, testing their recycling knowledge, learning how to be more environmentally friendly and establishing habits that will help them to reduce their waste and recycle more."
Residents can find out more and sign up to the challenge by visiting www.hillingdon.gov.uk/zero-waste
More information about recycling in Hillingdon can be found at www.hillingdon.gov.uk/recycling
Hillingdon Council's waste and recycling e-newsletters also have regular news and updates, sign up at www.hillingdon.gov.uk/enews