London,
16
December
2012
|
23:00
Europe/London

Hackney Council receives £1.3m recycling funding

Hackney Council has received more than £1.3m of funding to expand its recycling activities as part of a UK wide scheme.

The funding, which will be received between 2012-15 will be used to expand the food waste reycling service to all street levels and estate properties and to give free compostable liners to all households.

Food waste recycling was launched in Hackney in 2005, with residents receiving weekly collections of their leftover food from specially designed caddies.

This latest funding from the Department for Communities and Local Government's Weekly Collections Fund will also support a campaign to inform residents about changes to recycling from 1 March 2013.

Cllr Feryal Demirci, Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods, said: "I welcome the decision of the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) to award Hackney Council £1.337m in funding to improve recycling provision in the borough. In the current financial environment it is important that the Council finds new funding sources.

"Council officers have worked with DCLG representatives to design a programme of improvements to food waste recycling collections including the provision of free liners to 46,000 households and an expansion of the service to 30,000 properties on estates.”

From 1 March 2013 residents of most households in Hackney will see their green boxes replaced by sacks which will make recycling easier and will also speed up collections.

Food waste recycling will be collected on the same day as other recycling and will help the council contribute towards London's target of recycling 50% of all waste by 2020.

Once collected the food waste is taken to LondonWaste’s EcoPark inEdmonton, North London, where it is processed in an in-vessel compostingfacility for 12-weeks. The resulting product is PAS100 quality compost.

Notes for editors:

The bid is for:

  • Compostable food waste liners to all street level households
  • A face to face communication campaign to promote and embed new co-mingled recycling service
  • Food waste bin housing units for estates
  • Food waste caddies and compostable liners for all estate based households
  • Two vehicles plus operating and staffing costs to undertake food waste collections from estates
  • A face to face communication campaign to promote service expansion to customers

Funding to be delivered:

2012/13 – £128k
2013/14 – £878k
2014/15 – £331k