Are you up for the two bag challenge?
In February 2020, some residents in Harold Hill were invited to take part in a ‘Two bag Challenge’, to try to reduce household waste down to just two sacks per week.
The results were very impressive, with a 41 per cent decrease in households presenting more than two sacks per week, showing just how much effort and enthusiasm went into reducing waste by these households.
Due to the excellent response, we are now extending it to more households in Harold Hill to see if more residents in the area would be willing to make some small changes to reduce waste and help our environment.
If you have received a letter recently from Havering Council then you have been one of the households invited to take part in the next ‘Two Bag Challenge’.
Challenge case study
Read the full case study for the original challenge
Why the challenge?
You are probably aware of the impact waste is having on our environment, and noticing these effects more recently than ever before.
Waste impacts on finance too, as the Council can pay up to £16m per year of taxpayers money to recycle and dispose of household waste.
It’s time for change, and that change needs to happen in the industry, supermarkets, and at home!
There are many ways that we can reduce waste at home, from the way we shop to the way we use and store food.
This challenge, first trialed in 2020, was the first of its kind in the borough.
It tested new innovative approaches to address social and environmental issues and encouraged residents to take part and work together to tackle and manage waste at home.
The design of the original challenge was created by residents in the trial areas themselves, some of whom are part of your local community.
These residents told us what support they would like to receive and how they would like to receive the information in the first place.
How can you reduce waste?
There are lots of ways that you can reduce waste at home from key tips to avoiding food waste, fixing things instead of discarding them, and buying items that can be reused again and again in the future.
Many of these are explained in the booklet that you should have received.
Just remember the words, ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ and try to do things in that exact order.
So start by preventing the waste where you can such as buying reusable items, refills and loose items.
Give items to charity and friends or sell them so that someone else can reuse them.
If that doesn’t won’t work then try to make sure that the item is recyclable in Havering when you buy it and can go either in the orange sack or one of the many local recycling bank sites around the borough.
Did you know that batteries and small electrical appliances can be collected from your home alongside your orange sacks too?
Just pop them in a small carrier bag (or bread bag) and place them next to the orange sack on your collection day.