Some residents in Havering were invited to take part in a two month trial to add extra plastic items in their orange sacks for recycling.
The trial started on 13 June 2022 and finished on 22 July 2022.
The following information was what was originally published for the trial.
Additional plastic items for recycling are:
- Pots - yoghurt, soup
- Tubs - ice cream, spreadable butter, chocolates
- Trays - raw meat, fruit and vegetables, (not black) trays (these are of a very low quality and the sorting technology cannot spot them)
If you are one of these households then you should have received a letter asking you to take part.
About the trial
For many years Havering Council has only collected plastic bottles in the orange recycling sacks, and no other types of plastics.
This was because bottle type plastics are easily identifiable and have established markets for recycling and are therefore widely accepted in recycling schemes.
However, Havering’s waste disposal authority, the East London Waste Authority (ELWA) has recently been able to source a new outlet for its recyclate, and Havering is now able to run a trial to recycle these additional plastic items.
We can then see what the impact on the service resources may be such as vehicle capacity and load times.
We are very excited to be able to increase our recycling and we know it’s what our residents want.
This is giving us a great opportunity to understand what we will need to allow households across the whole borough to include these items in the recycling sacks in the future.
Your last collection of the additional plastics in your orange sacks will be the week ending 22 July 2022.
It is important that you do not continue to add these items after this date and instead revert back to placing your plastic pots, tubs and trays in your general waste sacks, or take them to a recycling facility that accepts these items.
Once the trial has finished, we will be able to review the results to determine how feasible it would be to collect additional plastics from all households in Havering and what additional resources would be required to do this.
We appreciate your support, participation and feedback on how this trial has worked for you and will be issuing a survey to all participating households at the end of the trial period.
Collection days will not change, however times of collections may vary and there is also the possibility that waste sacks are collected at a different time to recycling sacks.
Therefore, please ensure your sacks are presented by 7am on your collection day and only report a missed collection if your sacks have not been collected after 5pm.