Hackney recycling – row grows over orange sacks

Recycling Hackney Council

Photograph: Hackney Council

Recycling in Hackney is set to undergo a major change under new plans.

The new proposal sees the current green box and kerbside separation scheme replaced by mixed recycling sacks, to be collected and later separated at a sorting facility in Bow.

These radical changes come as Hackney tries to boost its recycling rate of 25%, revealed in 2011 government figures to be the fourth lowest in London.

And despite criticism from environmental campaigners, Councillor Feryal Demirci, Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods, is determined to push ahead with the new scheme, which was tested in Cazenove ward at the end of last year.

She said: “The green box scheme has served us well in Hackney but is now nearly ten years old. In that time we have seen recycling levels increase to 25%, but in order to further increase recycling levels we need some fresh thinking.”

“We have trialled this new collection scheme and the results have been overwhelmingly positive.

“The green box service may be right for less dense urban areas, but in Hackney we need a service that suits our neighbourhoods and our housing mix which is still capable of producing a good quality end product.”

The council also claim that mixed recycling could reach an additional 14,000 households not currently served by the green box scheme, and that it could deliver £12m in savings by 2020.

However, green pressure group Sustainable Hackney has voiced concerns about the impact mixed recycling may have on waste and recycling rates in the borough.

They claim that mixed recycling can lead to recyclable waste such as clear and brown glass becoming contaminated and unusable.

Spokesperson James Diamond also believes that people are more likely to treat a mixed bag as general waste, causing a lower proportion of recyclable material to be collected.

He said: “From an educational point of view it takes people’s minds off what they’re putting in the bin.

“Recycling is really putting a sticking plaster on the problem and we should be reducing waste at source.”

In response, Hackney Council claimed that research showed mixed recycling to be more effective than separate recycling.

A spokesperson said: “The evidence that commingled schemes in an urban setting out-perform kerbside sorting is clear from benchmarking of other boroughs, feedback and case studies.

“A number of studies have shown that, nationally, local authorities employing commingled collections typically outperform those that are using source separation.”

The new recycling proposals come as Hackney battles to improve its recycling rate of 25%, well below the national rate of 40% and London’s leading borough Bexley, which recycles over 51%.

The council’s 2011 budget reduced spending on recycling promotion and communication by £25,000, a decision the council said was forced by cuts in central government funding.

James Diamond said: “If we are to improve recycling rates I think that people really require communication and persuasion and more effort.”

The focus, he said, should be on educating people about recycling and about waste reduction in general.

He added: “Hackney’s recycling has improved considerably over past years, but they risk plateauing and missing their 2020 target of 50% which itself could be higher.”

Hackney Council pointed to a number of initiatives they have introduced to boost recycling rates and reduce waste, including a trial zero waste project on the Follingham Court estate in Hoxton and increased food waste collection services.

In February, council staff handed out new kitchen waste caddies and six month supplies of free compostable bin liners to thousands of households.

The council also said that recycling in Hackney posed some difficult challenges.

A spokesperson said: “The recycling team continue to seek innovative ways to close any gaps in service provision. Hackney is a diverse inner London borough with high levels of transience, deprivation and estate and high rise properties. Each of these factors presents a significant challenge when delivering and publicising recycling services.”

Related:

Stay green with the green box, says Hackney Friends of the Earth

3 Comments

  1. Cllr Abraham Jacobson on Sunday 1 April 2012 at 01:04

    I speak both as Councillor and resident in the Cazenove Ward, who is pro recycling and of course reusing where practical and possible. One of the main issues which I and local residents encountered was that the whole recycling system in my ward and surounding areas was not practical with the tiny green boxes being filled to capacity 2 days after collection and unless you had a large front garden (very few houses have) there was no room to store the green boxes and the recyclables was open to the elements and were often seen blowing around in windy weather when the nets which often went missing were not attached.

    The roads in my ward are mostly very narrow, the recycling lorries used to park up in the middle of the road, engines running in the busy morning period with no room for any vehicles to get past this causied congestion and high exhaust emmisions. In my road alone 3 disabled mini buses arrive daily to take residents to schools and day centres. The fact that Tuesdays was a no go zone with drivers being stuck for over an hour whilst listening to the hooting of some irate motorists is not a good advert for recycling.

    Just over a year ago further to a couple of meetings with Mark Griffin the head of Waste Management in Hackney Council in which I explained the recycling problems in my ward a visit to the Bywater recycling plant in Bow was arranged. I was accompanied by Mark Griffin ( Waste Management )and Cllr Feryal Demirci (Cabinet Member For Neighbourhoods) What amazed me was the fact that some 97-98% of all products brought into the plant ended up as recyclables. All contaminents were removed and the whole process is highly automated with each and every plastic recyclable beig sorted by laser beams and put into the right compartment and is clean i.e. other than a dry musty smell it did not have a dirty damp smell as you would expect. The whole plant from the outside looks like a giant warehouse not a rubbish dump! It is well worthwhile a visit and indeed I believe that particular plant sets a new benchmark in the UK for efficient productive recycling and incidentally a pop up childrens book on recycling has been made about this plant.

    Anyway to cut the long story short!!! a comingled recycling trial in my ward commenced in the beginning of September 2011 in which the had dramatic results. Overnight the volume of net recyclables increased by 30% whilst cogestion in roads like Durlston Road decreased by 80%. There used to be 4 separate gangs with 2 lorries causing chaos and congestion, now there is 1 lorry which does the job quicker than the other 8 combined!

    I had the pleasure (and fun) to monitor the orange bag recycling with Mark Griffin & Mr Gilbert of Hackney Council (and managed to chuck some bags into the back without missing) and you could see for one self the overnight succes it was. All the locals I speak to are happy, recycling is up drastically and congestion is down.

    WELL DONE AND THANK YOU LB Hackney.

    Cllr Abraham Jacobson
    Libdem Councillor
    Cazenove Ward

    P.S. Contrary to popular belief glass gets crushed and is used as aggregate for roads. Sorry Coke bottles and Busweisser bottles do not get reused. The only way around this one is I believe to do the old fashioned and good method like when I was a kid in the eighties is for money back for your glass bottles and cans.

    Feels free to contact me to discuss ideas as I am very keen to push practical methods of further waste recycling and elimination. My email address is abraham.jacobson@hackney.gov.uk



  2. michelle on Thursday 12 April 2012 at 14:37

    I live in the Cazenove ward and previously we used the green boxes. They were full after a couple of days and papers got soaked if it rained or blown around all over the place when it was windy and my garden ended up looking like a rubbish tip with it being guaranteed that I would have to go and tidy up after collection day. On collection days the road would be blocked with the trucks and the noise levels were really annoying and I really didnt appreciate being woken up by the sound of car horns blaring.

    Now with the orange sacks it is much better. Lots of room for recycling – I just open up another sack when the first one is full, it’s so much easier for my teenager too – no longer getting moaned at for putting it in the wrong box, it all goes in together. Sure we have had a couple of errors with general waste being chucked in, but that has been easily rectified and now the house is used to it it doesnt happen. No longer am I woken by cars and trucks every morning and when they have collected the bags my garden is nice and tidy as is the street because nothing has been dropped.

    Well done Hackney, probably one of the smartest moves you have made in my opinion :0)

    Now… if you could just work something out about the blue food boxes we would be in heaven – I just don’t like the idea of a box of food sitting in my house/garden for a week and cannot bring myself to re-open it to put more waste in knowing that the food has sat there rotting – probably my own personal phobia but some little food bags for indoors which you can transfer to the big box outside would be far more preferable



  3. Greener Hackney on Friday 13 April 2012 at 09:36

    @michelle

    That’s great to hear!

    With regards to food waste we are currently visiting every household in the borough to replace broken caddies, explain the food waste recycling system and to hand out free compostable liners to make transferring your food waste from the kitchen caddy to the big blue box easier and cleaner.

    Our doorknocking team are in Cazenove Ward at the moment so you should be hearing from us soon.

    Hope this helps.



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