New recycling service launched in Camden

Date:   10/6/10

Residents in Camden now have the opportunity to help their borough become greener by recycling even more of their waste. The new and improved recycling service is being launched this month (21 June 2010) and allows residents to recycle their food and garden waste on a weekly basis.

Residents will receive a recycling kit with new containers and a guide on how to use them.

Recycling advisors from the council will visit residents to answer questions and explain the importance of using the new service.

The council currently provides three refuse collections a week, two for non-recyclable waste. The third collection the door step recycling collection or estate recycling collection is the service that will include a food and garden waste collection. To make it easy for residents all recycling will be collected on the same day.

As part of the service residents with individual bins will receive:

• small green kitchen caddy to use inside (for food waste)
• a lockable brown outdoor caddy to use outside (for food waste)
• three white reusable bags for garden waste
• a blue bag for paper and card

Residents with shared bins, for example those living in a high rise property will receive:

• a small green kitchen caddy (for food waste)
• new shared recycling containers for food and garden waste

In Camden the current rate of recycling is 29.75%. The council is in the top 10 of London boroughs for recycling performance and in the top five for dry recyclables, this new service means the council can get closer towards a rate of 45% by 2015.

The new recycling service will allow residents to recycle all paper, card, glass bottles and jars, food and drinks cartons, tins, cans and mixed household plastic packaging, food and garden waste.

Councillor Sue Vincent, Cabinet Member for Environment, Camden Council, said:

"Our aim is to help residents understand the purpose and importance of recycling while highlighting how every person can play a role in protecting the environment. We cannot ignore the fact that we need to find better ways of dealing with our rubbish. Landfill space is running out and is a major contributor to climate change"

In Camden lots of the rubbish thrown away is food and garden waste which can be put to much better use. Recycling is one of the smallest steps a resident can carry out in their home but it can make the biggest difference to helping us achieve our goal of a greener Camden."

At present over a third of household rubbish thrown away in Camden is made up of food waste, which is organic. The council want to turn this into compost and use it locally.

Recycling also has important financial benefits; it is more cost effective to treat waste rather than pay the high prices to dispose of it in a landfill site. It is estimated that each month the average family throw away £50 of food. By separating out food waste for collection the council hopes residents will recognise and cut back on the amount of food they throw away.

Operating the service is Camden’s waste management contractor Veolia Environmental Services.

London Municipal Operations Director, Veolia Environmental Services, Pascal Hauret said:

“This vital new scheme will provide residents with even more opportunities to recycle and is an important enhancement to the wide range of services we already provide to Camden. We share Camden Council’s goal of making this borough as green as possible to improve the quality of life for everyone and we hope residents will play their part by embracing this new scheme.”

Residents will receive a weekly collection for food and garden waste on the same day the rest of their recycling is collected. Residents will receive a letter to inform them of their collection day and can also check the website camden.gov.uk

All recycling and rubbish needs to be placed out by 7am on the day of collection.

Notes to editor

1. The new service follows an audit last year when Camden became one of the first councils nationally to release a comprehensive report on the environmental effects of the way it collects materials for recycling at the kerbside.
2. The audit analysed commingled and separated kerbside collections - and recommended that rather than collecting co-mingled materials, paper and card should be collected separately from glass, tins and cans and plastic bottles. By keeping paper, card, food and garden waste separate from other recycling, it stays cleaner, avoiding contamination and making it easier to recycle, as it means it doesn’t go to a special facility to be sorted, which uses more energy.
3. Once collected the food and garden waste will be taken to a north London facility for composting. The high quality compost produced can be used in agriculture, parks and gardens.
4. Residents in Camden already recycle 29.75% per cent of their waste – Camden is in the top 10 of London boroughs for recycling performance and in the top five for dry recyclables.
5. The changes will help the Council achieve higher national recycling targets, reduce the environmental impact of its waste, recycling and street cleansing services, and meet the objectives of the north London joint waste strategy and Camden’s sustainability strategy.
6. The new arrangements are needed to help hit these targets as 33 per cent of the borough’s waste stream currently is organic waste.
7. The Council also has to meet challenging government targets in relation to recycling and the requirements of the north London joint waste strategy which drive a reduction in the level of waste going to landfill in order to avoid punitive financial sanctions. Camden takes its waste minimisation and re-use responsibilities very seriously and makes a very clear link to minimising the carbon footprint of its waste collection service.
8. The Council’s waste collection, recycling and street cleansing contract with Veolia has been extended by seven years from 1 April 2010 to 31 March 2017. The decision was made by the Council’s Executive at a meeting on 7 January 2009.The contract will be subject to regular review to achieve further improvements and efficiencies to reduce cost.

Ref Code:   PR 1185
Contact:
     pressoffice@camden.gov.uk