Tell us how you recycle to help us increase recycling rates
Thursday 20 June, 2024: Hillingdon Council is asking residents to share their households recycling habits via an online survey to support the creation of a campaign to further reduce the borough's contamination levels.
Contamination is when items which can't be recycled are placed in the clear recycling sacks, but it's also an issue when items which can be recycled are put in the general household waste.
The survey asks where people go for information on what to recycle and what drives their decision-making at home when it comes to what does and doesn't get recycled. The council's ambition is to halve the borough's current contamination rate by the end of 2025.
Cllr Eddie Lavery, Hillingdon Council's Cabinet Member for Residents' Services, said: "We're committed to being a green and sustainable borough, so recycling as much as possible and reducing the overall waste we produce will be a key focus of this.
"We know most residents play their part and recycle what they can, but putting non-recyclable items into your recycling bags contaminates the load which can incur a cost for disposal. So, recycling better is actually more cost effective for everyone.
"It's imperative residents can easily access the information they need about what can and can't be recycled in Hillingdon, so please take a few minutes to fill out our survey to help us see what changes we can make to help residents improve their recycling."
The most common contaminating items in Hillingdon are food waste, clothing and hygiene products. However, the council offers free, weekly collections for mixed dry recycling, food and garden waste as well as free textiles collections in partnership with Traid.
For larger items, there's a low cost bulky waste collection service, or alternatively residents can use one of the borough's two civic amenity sites.
To take part in our recycling survey, visit www.hillingdon.gov.uk/recycling-survey
