It’s the Grand Finale of Lewisham’s Recycling Week!
Come along to Lewisham Shopping centre on Saturday 28 September and join the council’s recycling team.
The day will be filled with exciting activities, recycling games, a quiz and a Junk Orchestra, a company which uses up-cycled waste to make music!
There will also be a collection of objects rescued and re-invented from the urban sprawl.
The activities are opened to people of all ages. Residents will have the opportunity to take part and learn a lot about recycling.
Council steps up efforts to improve poor waste recycling rates
London boroughs including Lewisham have some of the worst recycling rates in the country. In the 2017-18 financial year Lewisham managed to recycle just 21.7 per cent of waste.
In 2018-19 the recycling rate increased to 28.4 per cent, still way below the 50 per cent levels achieved by councils such as Bexley and the 60 per cent rate some councils in the north are reaching..
But after a consultation which drew more than 5,500 respondents, Lewisham is about to introduce a series of measures it hopes will lead to big improvements in its recycling efforts.
A draft report has gone to council officers and it includes several measures which were outlined by Luke Ellis, a council officer, at the Ladywell ward assembly on June 25. (Luke answers your questions)
Mr Ellis said Lewisham would step up its education efforts around the use of plastics and insisted the council itself would be limiting its use of plastics.
It would also set up a recycling facility at Laurence House in Catford; introduce measures to reduce contamination of recycled waste on estates; and extend food waste collections to red routes in the borough.
Mr Ellis said contamination of recyclable waste with non-recyclable waste remains a big problem in the borough and often leads to whole truckloads of recycled waste being sent for incineration.
Mr Ellis acknowledged that for individual households recycling plastics can be difficult and confusing.
A recent study by consumer group Which? found that nearly half of supermarket packaging cannot be easily recycled. It also found that lots of plastic packaging was incorrectly labelled as recyclable.
The study found that that on average 52% of packaging could be be easily recycled via household bins.
London Recycles – a consumer campaign set up to help Londoners recycle more – found almost 40 percent of residents in Lewisham were unsure about what they could recycle at home.
For example, some 42 per cent thought spray cleaner bottles could not be recycled, when in fact they can be. Just over a quarter though clear plastic trays and plastic shampoo bottles could not, when they can be.
Almost half thought toothpaste tubes could be recycled – but they can’t.
If you are unsure about what you can recycle go to www.lewisham.gov.uk/recycle or call Lewisham on 020
8314 9303