Over six months ago Hackney Council introduced a new recycling service to all estate properties across the borough and results show it is performing well, capturing more materials for recycling than ever.

Residents on estates can now recycle paper, cardboard, glass bottles and jars, tins, cans and plastic bottles, which can be collected within the home and conveniently dropped into recycling bins. These are typically located next to refuse stores or at estate entrances.

With residents making good use of the new recycling bins, more than 1700 tonnes of materials - around the weight of 213 double decker buses - have been recycled since December 2008. This is an increase of 400 tonnes or 23% compared to the same period in 2006/07, which is a great achievement.

Councillor Alan Laing, Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods, said: “Thank you to everyone for their contributions, supporting the Council’s efforts to help make Hackney a cleaner, greener borough. We want residents to recycle as much as possible so it’s great to see the new estate recycling service working well and people responding to the improved service.“

Feedback on the new service has generally been positive with people welcoming the option to recycle new materials such as cardboard and plastic bottles. But we want even more residents on estates to recycle their waste.

The Council’s recycling team is currently undertaking a review of the new service, identifying estates where there may be issues and working to resolve them. We aim to ensure that a wide range of materials can be recycled on estates and make recycling as easy as possible for all residents.

As always, we welcome feedback on the service and want people to contact us with suggestions to help improve recycling on estates.

For more information or to feedback on the Council’s recycling services please call the recycling hotline on 020 8356 6688 or email: recycling@hackney.gov.uk