Croydon Council is up for a national award after boosting the borough’s recycling rate by the largest margin in London.
The most recent figures show Croydon recycled 47% of all waste during the 2018/19 financial year. The 9.4% rise since the previous year is one of the largest in the country and follows the council’s introduction of a new waste and recycling service in September 2018 working alongside Veolia and the South London Waste Partnership.
Today the scheme has been named as a finalist for the Local Authority Success category at the National Recycling Awards 2020. The awards recognise innovation and best practice in waste and recycling.
As part of the new service, the council replaced small recycling boxes with a blue-lidded 240-litre wheelie bin for paper and a 240-litre wheelie bin for plastic, metal and glass, giving residents more room to recycle.
The changes were designed to help boost Croydon’s recycling rate to more than 50% over the next two years. At the same time the council also changed collection days for three quarters of households to make collections more efficient.
All affected households received a letter, leaflet and booklet explaining why and how collections were changing as a series of public roadshows toured the borough throughout the summer of 2018.
“The major increase proves how committed our residents are to doing the right thing and by giving them more room to recycle we’ve collectively made a real difference, reducing the amount of refuse collected over the year by 18,000 tonnes. I want Croydon to become London’s greenest borough and I’m pleased to see residents embracing the new system and helping boost the borough’s recycling rate.”
Councillor Stuart Collins, deputy leader – Clean Green Croydon
Scott Edgell, General Manager for south London at Veolia, said: “Together with Croydon Council and South London Waste Partnership, we’ve designed and implemented a unified collection service in the area, which quickly translated into a significant improvement of the recycling rates. We will continue to further develop this environmental solution and to promote sustainable waste behaviours in the community. We’re extremely proud that our joint efforts have gained recognition from Materials Recycling World, through this National Recycling Awards nomination.”
The winner will be announced on Tuesday 15 December in central London.
