Five new food and drink carton bins across Ealing
Ealing residents can now recycle drink and food cartons using special new bins located in five sites across the borough.
By using the new bins residents can cut the amount of waste sent to landfill and help Ealing Council reach its target to recycle 30% of household waste by April 2008.
Each year, UK beverage carton manufacturers produce approximately 55,000 tonnes of paper-based cartons for milk, juice, sauces and other liquid foods/drinks. This equates to around 2.3kg of cartons per household which could be recycled instead of thrown in the rubbish bin.
Prior to the introduction of the new recycling bins residents were unable to recycle these sorts of cartons, widely used for milk, juice, sauces and other liquid foods and drinks.
The new carton recycling bins are available at the following sites:
Acton re-use and recycling centre, Stirling Road, Acton, W3 8DJ
Greenford re-use and recycling centre, Greenford Road, Greenford, UB6 9AP
Southall re-use and recycling centre, Gordon Road, Southall, UB2 5QE
Lidl supermarket, Uxbridge Road, Hanwell W7 3SU
Ealing Town Hall car park, Longfield Road, Ealing W5 2BY.
The scheme is being introduced in conjunction with Tetra Pak Ltd and the carton industry body ACE UK (Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment). Once collected the cartons can be recycled into a number of different products, ranging from plasterboard liner to high-strength paper bags and envelopes.
Since April last year, the UK carton industry has made £1.5 million available to help local authorities start up carton collection schemes in more than 100 areas nationally.
Residents are reminded that cartons can only be recycled using the special new carton bins and must not be put in kerbside greenboxes.
The introduction of carton collections comes on the back of the introduction of cardboard recycling and free garden waste sacks at the end of last year which helped the Council to achieve its biggest ever recycling rate increase up from 19 to 25%.
Councillor Will Brooks, Cabinet Member for Environment and Street Services, said: “There has been significant Council investment over the past year to make recycling free and as easy to do as possible to do. This has already paid dividends with our biggest ever recycling increase recorded last year and garden waste recycling up by a staggering 80%. However, we all still have much to do if we are to meet both national and local recycling targets. I welcome the carton industry’s support in setting up these five new sites which will mean that carton can be recycled in the borough so that even less of our waste ends up in landfill.”
Richard Hands, Environment Manager at Tetra Pak Ltd and Chairman of ACE UK, added: “Whilst cartons have been successfully recycled in large volumes for many years throughout Europe, the UK has a long way to go. It’s therefore fantastic news that Ealing Council is taking a lead by adding cartons to the list of materials collected for recycling and we very much hope that the initiative is successful. We and our industry partners are committed to increasing the level of carton recycling in the UK with the aim of reaching a national network of carton collection by the end of 2008. Our work with Ealing Council takes us and households in the area one step closer to achieving that.”
For further information about recycling residents should visit www.ealing.gov.uk or contact Ealing Customer Services on 020 8825 6000.
August 14, 2007