Hillingdon Council is reminding residents this festive period about upcoming changes to collection days and the variety of free recycling options available in the borough.
The council is committed to recycling as much of the borough’s waste as possible by providing households with free, weekly, easy to use recycling collections for mixed dry recyclables, food and garden waste, and a free, bookable textile home collection service.
This Christmas there will be no changes to waste and recycling collections during the week commencing Monday 18 December. However, if your collection day is usually a Monday, the waste and recycling collection scheduled for Monday 25 December is moving forward to Saturday 23 December. This will help the council to ensure the shortest period of disruption to residents and enable normal waste collections to return as quickly as possible from Monday 8 January. All other collection days between Tuesday 26 December and Friday 5 January are one day later than normal.
Households tend to generate more waste during Christmas, and many items are often included in general waste when they can be recycled. Plastic bottles, including spray triggers, plastic tubs and trays, drinks cans, food tins, kitchen foil and aluminium trays, aerosol cans, paper, magazines, cardboard, glass bottles and jars can all be put in the council’s clear dry mixed recycling sacks. Most cards and wrapping paper can also be included, except for those with glitter on or foil which should be placed in general waste bags. Other items which cannot be recycled in dry mixed collections, include bubble wrap, crisp packets, plastic shopping bags and batteries.
Household batteries, including coin button, household domestic and rechargeable batteries can be recycled via the battery collection bins in most of our libraries.
Christmas leftovers that can’t be repurposed or frozen can be included in the council’s food recycling scheme, which in turn is turned into electricity and food fertiliser. A range of food waste can be recycled, including raw and cooked fish and meat, dairy products and eggshells; teabags and coffee grounds; and fruit and vegetable peelings. If your house is not signed up to this service, you can register at www.hillingdon.gov.uk/food-waste and receive a free indoor and outdoor caddy and caddy liners.
Your real Christmas trees can be collected as part of the council’s weekly garden waste collections. Make sure all decorations and pots are removed and cut trees taller than six feet in half and leave them at the edge of your property boundary. If you live in a flat, collections between Monday 8 and Sunday 21 January can be booked by emailing wastesupervisor@hillingdon.gov.uk. Residents can recycle up to six canvas bags of green waste, including flowers and small plants, grass cuttings and hedge clippings, through this service.
If you’re gifted some new clothes, you can recycle your old ones through our bookable textile home collection service in partnership with TRAID. TRAID also accepts small/medium sized electrical items alongside a clothing collection.
Small electricals, such as hair styling appliances, laptops, kettles and electric toothbrushes, can also be recycled at nine of the borough’s libraries through the council’s new recycling initiative with Material Focus. Since the scheme launched in October, nearly one tonne has been collected.
Additionally, the council offers a bookable, low-cost bulky waste home collection service for larger items, and waste and recycling can also be taken to the council’s civic amenity site in Harefield and the West Drayton waste weekends at Tavistock Road (Harefield will be closed on Monday 25 December, Tuesday 26 December and Monday 1 January).
Cllr Eddie Lavery, Hillingdon Council’s Cabinet Member for Residents’ Services, said: “The council is committed to creating a green and sustainable borough, and recycling reduces the pollution caused by disposing of waste, saves natural resources, such as timber and minerals, and saves the council money which can be spent on delivering other services.
“As we reach the end of another year, I’d like to thank Hillingdon residents for their continued reuse and recycling efforts and encourage those not taking part in the council’s recycling collections to give them a go to help to protect the environment now and for generations to come.
“We can all play our part in driving up Hillingdon’s recycling rates even further, so please do have a look on our website at the options available and how to use them.”
To find out more, visit www.hillingdon.gov.uk/rubbishandrecycling.