Green Box Recycling Service
The Green Box recycling scheme is a weekly, dry recyclables collection which is available to all street level properties in Hackney. It is compulsory to recycle tins and cans, glass, and paper.
About your service
Your Green Box
Nets, lids and dividers
Why we sort your materials at the kerbside
Collecting your recycling using two vehicles
Materials you can recycle
Materials you can’t recycle
Frequently asked questions
Q. Why haven’t all of my materials been collected?
Q. My plastic bottles and cardboard are still in the Green Box?
Q. What kind of plastic bottles can I recycled?
Q. Where can I recycle Tetra paks and drinks cartons?
Q. Where should I leave my Green Box
Q. What is my correct collection day?
Q. What if I have trouble taking my Green Box out to the kerbside?
Q. My recycling was not collected today
Q. Compulsory recycling – tell me more
Q. Where does my recycling go?
Q. Does Hackney have a CA site or recycling and reuse centre?
Your Green Box
The Green Box is made from 100% recycled plastic, and has a capacity of 55 litres. It is available to all street level properties. Residents can request additional boxes if required.
Nets, lids and dividers
Elastic net covers are now available for the Green Box, and can be provided free of charge. Phone the recycling hotline to request one. Results from recent trials carried out in the borough show that these nets keep recyclables contained within the boxes, while keeping unwanted items out, such as litter thrown from passers by. When you recieve your net, remember to tie it on to your Green Box using the ties provided.
Residents regularly ask where they can get lids or dividers for their Green Box. The Council doesn’t provide these, however residents can find our more about the options available from Straight, who make the recycling receptacles. http://www.straight.co.uk/pages/p_kerbside_accessories.html
Why we sort your materials at the kerbside
Lots of residents ask why we provide green boxes instead of wheeled bins for recycling. The method of recycling selected by the Council is ‘kerbside sort’, which means that the crews sort materials from your Green Box into different compartments of their vehicle at the point of collection. This means the materials collected are high quality and can be reprocessed in the UK, where there are strong markets for the end product. Materials collected in wheeled bins and mixed together are sorted by machine, which generates a lower quality raw material. There is a limited market in the UK for this grade of material, and it would have to be sent either further a field in the UK or overseas for reprocessing.
Collecting your recycling using two vehicles
Your recycling is collected using a spit method of collection. One vehicle collects all items in the Green Box EXCEPT plastic bottles and cardboard. A second, compaction vehicle collects plastic bottles, cardboard and food waste from the Blue Bin. For this reason we ask residents to separate their plastic bottles and cardboard from the rest of their green box recyclables, into a plastic bag (which will be recycled), a cardboard box, or another Green Box.
You can help the crew by:
- Collecting plastic bottles and cardboard separately if possible, and put them in a plastic bag (which gets recycled), a cardboard box, or in another Green Box
- Flatten cardboard and squash plastic bottles to save space
- Group like items together (paper stacked together, glass together etc)
Materials you can recycle
- Paper: All paper can be recycled, including newspapers, magazines, junk mail, catalogues, envelopes and letters.
- Cardboard: Boxes, clean food packaging and old greeting cards can all be recycled. Squash cardboard down and remember to remove any polystyrene or plastic.
- Glass: Remove lids and rinse bottles and jars (all colours of glass can be included). Do not put in broken glass, light bulbs, drinking glasses or Pyrex. You don’t need to remove labels.
- Tins and cans: Rinse the cans, squash them, and pile them together.
- Plastic bottles: Remove lids, wash and sqash
- Engine oil: Used oil can be recycled, but put it in a marked container. It is illegal to pour engine oil down the drain.
- Household batteries: Put disposable batteries in a bag to keep them separate.
- Yellow Pages directories: Keep these separate from other paper and put in a plastic bag to keep them dry. The plastic bag will be recycled.
- Clothing, shoes and textiles: Make sure they are clean, and put them in a plastic bag to keep them dry. Tie shoes together.
- Car batteries: Leave these next to your Green Box on your collection day.
- Tin foil: Wash and squash aluminium foil and foil ready meal or take away containers.
- Aerosols: Make sure they are empty, but don’t squash or pierce them
Materials you can’t recycle
Instead, check out the waste prevention tips to either reuse or reduce your waste. Aim for one black sack of rubbish each week, or even less.
- Yoghurt pots: Waste prevention tip - Buy yoghurt in large containers and decant, make your own yoghurt at home, use the containers for paint containers or for art projects with children.
- Plastic meat trays: Waste prevention tip - Buy your meat at your local butcher, with less packaging, and often better prices and quality
- Tetrapaks© and drink cartons: Waste prevention tip - You can recycle these at 10 locations around the borough. Click here to find your nearest location.
- Plastic egg boxes: Waste prevention tip - Buy your eggs is cardboard cartons, which can be recycled
- Plastic food packaging: Waste prevention tip - Where possible, buy fruit and vegetables loose, so that you avoid the excess packaging. When buying crisps and sweets, buy in bulk and decant into containers rather than buying multi packs. You save money and the environment as well
- Margarine and butter tubs: Waste prevention tip - Buy the kind that is wrapped in foil or paper, rather than a plastic tub. The plastic tubs can be reused as containers for children’s crayons, beads and craft materials, or as paint pots. Alternatively, tubs can be reused as storage containers for food you want to store in the freezer.
- Plastic bags: Waste prevention tip - Say no to plastic bags! Buy cloth bags or bags for life, and do away with the need for plastic bags forever.
- Disposable nappies: Waste prevention tip - Use real nappies! Hackney Council provides a £54 voucher to get you started using real nappies. Using real nappies saves you around £500 per baby, as well as reducing the impact on the environment. Click here for more information.
Other items that can not be recycled in the Green Box
- Broken glass
- Drinking glasses
- Window glass
Frequently asked questions
Why haven’t all of my materials been collected?
If they're not accepted in the Green Box, they won’t be collected. See the list of materials that can and can’t be accepted in the collection.
My plastic bottles and cardboard are still in the Green Box?
There may be a period of time when plastic bottles and cardboard will be left in the Green Box before the second compaction vehicle collects them. They will be collected by 4:30pm. Do not report this as a missed collection before 4:30pm.
What kind of plastic bottles can I recycle?
If it's shaped like a bottle, and made from plastic, you can recycle it. Remember to wash and squash it, and remove the lid. Other kind of plastic can not be recycled. This includes yoghurt pots, ready meal containers, strawberry tubs, margarine tubs and plastic coat hangers.
Where can I recycle Tetra Paks and drinks cartons?
Tetra Paks and drinks cartons can not be recycled in the Green Box. Unlike items like paper, tins and cans or cardboard, Tetra Paks can not be turned into the same item again, as they are made from a mixture of materials including paper, aluminimum and plastic. They can, however, be recycled into other items. Hackney Council is trialling Tetra Pak recycling at 9 recycling bank locations across the borough.
- E5 8BY, Kenninghall Road, near Nightingale Road
- E8 2NG, Kingsland Shopping Centre Car Park, outside entrance
- E9 5AX, Wick Road, opposite Vanner Point, New Gascoyne Estate
- E9 6ND, Morning Lane, Tesco Car Park
- N1 5AA, Lancresse/Downham Road & Kingsland Road opp Fire Station
- N1 7TA, Sturt Street opp Taplow Street
- N16 0PT, Lordship Road, Lordship South Estate, between Lordship Terrace and Lordship Grove
- N16 5SR, Stamford Hill, Morrisons Car Park
- N4 2HD, Green Lanes near John Scott Health Centre
Where should I leave my Green Box
The Green Box should be placed at the front of your property where it can be easily seen by the collection crew, by 7:30am on your collection day.
What is my correct collection day?
See the ‘downloads’ section at the right hand side of this page. You can check what day your recycling is collected here.
What if I have trouble taking my Green Box out to the kerbside?
Residents can get help lifting their recycling by asking for an assisted collection. The collection crew can take it from the doorstep of a property to the collection point. The crew cannot enter properties. Phone the recycling hotline to arrange this.
My recycling was not collected today
Please do not report a missed collection before 4:30pm, as the crew are still collecting at this time. If it is after 4:30pm, please phone the recycling hotline. If an entire road is missed it may be that road works or illegally parked cars have prevented access, and a smaller vehicle will be sent the following day. You can minimise the chance of a missed collection by ensuring your bin, box or bag is at the boundary of your property and clearly visible by 7.30am on your collection day.
Compulsory recycling - tell me more
Under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, the London Borough of Hackney can legally require residents to use particular containers for different waste materials. Under the compulsory recycling initiative, the Council does not allow residents to put paper tins and cans or glass in the general waste but provides a Green Box for these items to be collected separately for recycling. In February 2006, compulsory recycling was successfully introduced to some areas of Hackney. From 1 March 2007, it was made compulsory for all Hackney residents in street level properties serviced by the Green Box to recycle paper, tins and cans, and glass. It is not compulsory for residents in high rise properties to recycle, or for residents of street level properties to recycle through the Blue Bin kitchen waste or Brown Bin garden waste schemes.
Why make recycling compulsory?
Every local authority in the UK has to meet recycling targets set by central Government. Failure to meet these can result in large fines for the Council. While recycling in Hackney has come a long way in a short space of time, we are still struggling to meet our targets and need to encourage more people to recycle more materials, more often. When trialled in Hackney, compulsory recycling increased the recycling rate and was supported by residents.
What happens to the money from the fine?
The aim of the initiative is not to make money for the Council. Any money received from fines is held by the Magistrates Court, the Council does not receive any of it. Making recycling compulsory was not introduced to punish residents for not recycling, but to raise awareness of recycling services and to get those residents who currently do not make use of the Green Box service to do so.
How is compulsory recycling monitored?
Green Boxes are collected weekly, so it is easy to monitor which households are not participating. Monitoring is carried out over a four week period. Any resident that has placed their Green Box out containing paper, tins and cans or glass in a four week monitoring period is considered to be recycling, and will not be monitored until the start of the next monitoring period. Residents who persistently and deliberately fail to use the Green Box collection for paper, tins and cans and glass may be served with a formal legal notice and may then be prosecuted and fined up to £1000.
How can you tell who is and isn’t recycling in shared buildings?
All new Green Boxes carry space to write in flat and house numbers. It is important residents do this to assist monitoring and reduce confusion over box ownership.
Where does my recycling go?
- Batteries are taken to G&P Batteries, based in Darleston, who specialise in recycling and processing both lead and non-lead acid batteries.
- Cardboard is taken to London Recycling Limited, where it is reprocessed into cardboard materials and paper.
- Clothing, shoes and textiles are collected by our usual contractor (ECT), if left in the Green Box and sent to LM Barry, or by Oxfam or TRAID (registered charities), if left in one of Hackney’s textile banks. In each case, the materials are sorted into two streams: one for reusable clothes for charity, and the other to be reprocessed to make felt, wadding and dusters.
- Engine Oil is dealt with by a company called Malary Environmental Services, where it is blended to produce high quality, reclaimed fuel oil (RFO).
- Foil goes to the Forest Recycling Project, a not for profit recycling organisation, who sort it and send it on to be recycled. The money raised is used in tree planting programs.
- Glass is separated into colours and sent to a special plant in Harlow, which is run by British Glass. After it has been thoroughly cleaned to remove things like labels and plastic, it is mixed with other materials and melted down to be turned back into more bottles and jars.
- Paper is taken to Ayleford Newsprint in Kent, where it is turned into paper for newspapers across Europe.
- Plastic bottles collected from the Green Box scheme are sent to St Helens, Merseyside, to JFC Plastics Ltd. Here they are manufactured into drain pipes for construction and agricultural markets, wood substitute decking and fencing, street furniture and traffic management systems.
- Tins and cans are sent to a company called AMG in Wales, where they are turned straight back into more tins and cans.
- Yellow Pages are a very low grade paper so cannot be treated like normal paper. They are sent to Raven’s Waste Paper in Croydon, who shred it for animal bedding
Does Hackney have a CA site or recycling and reuse centre?
Civic amenity sites or recycling and reuse centres are depots where the public can take general waste and recyclables. Hackney does not have a CA site. The Council does however, have an agreement with Islington Council which allows Hackney residents to use their facilities.
Location
40-42 Hornsey Street
Islington
London
N7 8HQ
Tel: 020 7527 2000
Opening times
Mondays to Saturdays, 8am to 8pm, Sundays and public holidays: 8.30am to 8pm, Christmas Day and New Years Day: closed.
Page updated: 27 Feb 2008