Hillingdon launches new small electrical recycling initiative in libraries this Recycle Week
Tuesday 17 October 2023: Hillingdon Council is marking Recycle Week (16 to 22 October) with the launch of new small electrical recycling points in libraries across the borough in a bid to increase the number of electrical products being recycled instead of being thrown away.
The council, working in partnership with Material Focus, a not-for-profit organisation which has funded the scheme, will collect items including broken kettles, hair styling appliances and electric children's toys. Small electricals can still also be donated alongside clothes as part of the council's home clothing collection scheme with the charity TRAID. Larger items continue to be accepted at Harefield Civic Amenity Site and at the West Drayton waste weekends.
The theme for this year's national Recycle Week initiative, The Big Recycling Hunt, focuses on items that can be recycled but are most commonly missed in the home. The council is building on this by also shining a light on items that don't belong in household recycling but can be recycled by other means. When items that are not recyclable are included in a recycling bags this could lead to a whole batch of recycling being rejected and disposed of as general waste.
The most common items that can be recycled as part of the council's dry mixed recycling collections (and may sometimes be forgotten about), include:
- plastic pots, tubs and trays
- plastic detergent/cleaning bottles and their triggers
- shampoo/conditioner bottles
- empty aerosols
- drinks and food cans/tins
- kitchen foil and aluminium trays
- books, paper, magazines and cardboard
- Tetra Paks and cartons
- lids from bottles and jars.
The most common household items that cannot be recycled as part of the council's dry mixed recycling collections, include:
- clothes and textiles
- batteries and electrical items
- food and liquids.
Hillingdon's waste and recycling team will also be hosting three recycling roadshows in Uxbridge, Ickenham and Ruislip this week to celebrate Recycle Week. They will be on hand to answer questions and help residents improve their recycling habits, find out more about how to bin less and recycle more, and share tips on how to reduce contamination.
The council is committed to recycling as much waste as possible by providing residents with free, weekly and easy-to-use recycling collections for mixed dry recyclables, food and garden waste. The council also offers free textile collections.
Hillingdon is seeing a steady increase in recycling rates. Food waste collections rose by 17 per cent between 2021/22 and 2022/23 as more people in kerbside properties signed up for the council's free weekly food waste collections. Residents have also booked more than 8,000 free household clothing and textile collections via TRAID since September 2021, which is more than any other London borough, resulting in approximately 135 tonnes of textiles being reused and recycled.
West Drayton resident Rachel Rizzo and her sons, Enzo, aged 11, and Theo, aged eight are keen recyclers. Rachel said: "The boys love to get involved with sorting the recycling while I make sure that it's all clean and dry. Weekly collections help us to stay on top of everything and the council website is great for checking anything we're not quite sure about."
Cllr Eddie Lavery, Hillingdon Council's Cabinet Member for Residents' Services, said: "We are committed to creating a green and more sustainable borough for future generations and our new small electricals recycling scheme in libraries provides another opportunity for residents to recycle and reduce the environmental impact of disposing of general waste.
"Thank you to all Hillingdon residents for their ongoing recycling efforts. We're seeing more households recycling year on year which is fantastic.
"We can all play our part in driving recycling rates up even further, so please do take the time to check that you are recycling correctly and doing all you can - every little helps."
More information about the council's recycling initiatives, collections and events is available at www.hillingdon.gov.uk/recycling.