Green Matters
Recycle your Christmas tree and cards
There are a number of options available to recycle your Christmas Tree and cards.
Please note: All decorations must be removed from trees prior to them being collected/deposited for recycling:
Christmas trees
Brown Bin: If you live on a road covered by the brown bin scheme, you can place your tree next to your brown bin on the collection day.
Bulky Waste: You can can request for your tree to be collected via the Councils free bulky waste service on 020 8356 6688. All trees collected are separated from other waste at the Councils waste transfer station and sent onward for recycling. These will be collected by Waste Operations.
CA/Reuse and Recycling Centres: Hackney does not have a CA/Reuse and Recycling Centre. Hackney residents are however allowed to use facilities in the neighbouring boroughs of Islington and Waltham Forest. Christmas trees should be deposited with the green waste.
| Islington | Waltham Forest |
40-42 Hornsey Street Monday to Saturday: 8am – 8pm | South Access Road (via Markhouse Avenue) Monday to Saturday: 8.30am – 5.15.pm |
Please note: You will not be able to drop your tree off at Millfields Waste Transfer Station, Millfields Road, E5, as in previous years due to development works.
Hackney Marshes: The Council will provide a designated skip container for residents to place their Christmas Trees into at Hackney Marshes. This will be placed at the following location until 12 January 2009 and collected regularly by Waste Operations.
Hackney Marshes
South Marsh
Car Park, adjacent to Park Rangers Office Off Homerton Road
Access will be in line with regular park opening hours.
All Christmas Trees collected are taken to a composting facility operated by London Waste Ltd where they are composted. This compost is then made available to use on Hackney’s parks and green spaces.
Christmas cards
Christmas cards can be recycled in your green box collection, or in recycling banks on your estate. The Woodland Trust also runs a Christmas Card recycling scheme, with Recycle Now.
Fun in the bun
Pupils had fun dressing up as big bits of rubbish, while learning about litter, food and dog waste.
The Year Three children from Benthal Primary School, in Stoke Newington, and Gainsborough primary, in Hackney Wick, were asked how they felt when they saw someone drop rubbish and walk away.
They were urged to think about what litter actually is, as well as whose responsibility it is to pick it up. Youngsters also learnt about the origins of litter, how packaging can become litter, and what a big problem dog waste is because it carries germs.
During workshops at both schools, organised by ecoACTIVE, the children were shocked to hear that dogs in the UK produce 900 tonnes of waste every day – the equivalent to 900 small cars. They also came up with ideas to make sure dog owners clean up after their pets.
Not going to waste
The Woodland Trust has teamed up with Recycle Now once again to launch their annual Christmas card recycling scheme.
Last year, 78,000 cards were collected thanks to the scheme which diverted 1,461 tonnes of card from landfill.
The money raised by the scheme pays for thousands of trees to be planted in the UK each year. During January, collection bins will be placed in Tesco in Morning Lane and Marks and Spencer in Mare Street.
Double your treat for dinner
An organisation that provides a wealth of tips on how to use up your leftovers brought its roadshow to Stoke Newington Farmers’ Market.
The Love Food, Hate Waste stall included a food wheel to help children and parents make the most of specific types of food. The visit, part of last month’s European Week of Waste Reduction, saw 35 people make a pledge to reduce the amount of food they throw away.
With Christmas fast approaching, many people will find themselves with a glut of leftover goodies. So if you can’t face a round of turkey sandwiches, Love Food, Hate Waste has a special festive leftovers section on its website.
Delightful possibilities include Christmas pudding strudel, curried Christmas vegetables, and turkey, mango and lime salad.
There are also tips on cupboard and freezer essentials, as well as portion sizes, use by and best before dates.
If something really can’t be eaten, consider whether it might provide a winter feast for the birds in your garden, or use it in your compost bin. Residents who live in street level properties could also add their food waste to their blue bin.
More information
For delicious Christmas leftover ideas visit: www.lovefoodhatewaste.com.
Using their bottle
Residents in sheltered housing are the proud new owners of a sustainable straw bale garden shed and a recycled plastic bottle greenhouse.
Volunteers from entertainment provider Sky visited Plumpton Lodge, E5, as part of Global Action Plan’s EverGreen project for older people. As well as building the shed and greenhouse, the team worked with a local artist and Hanover Housing Association residents to create ceramic mosaics using old tiles from a local business.
Eileen Nash, 64, said: “It was interesting to see the straw bale garden shed go up, as we were not expecting anything that big and different. I will even be able to wheel my husband in as he is in a wheelchair.”
Mr Nash, 79, added: “All the residents here enjoy being active and part of a community; the bottle green house helps us continue doing what we enjoy.”
Global Action Plan is Sky’s charity partner until 2011. Community Programme Manager, Nick Martin, said: “The volunteers were enthusiastic and the residents had a day that will stay with them for a long time. This will enhance their food growing exploits for years to come.”
Salad starts off scheme for 2,012 food plots
A vegetable box scheme that provides Hackney residents with locally-grown produce is getting to work on a new plot of land.
Growing Communities’ volunteer apprentices Annie Stables and Sean Hearn have already begun digging raised beds in a 10 square metre plot of land belonging to St Paul’s Vicarage, N16. The pair hope to be harvesting salad for the vegetable boxes by late summer 2009.
The site – part of the social enterprise’s ‘patchwork farm’ project to increase the number of Hackney veg growers – was donated by vicar Niall Weir.
Already certified as organic by the Soil Association, it is set to receive a grant from Capital Growth, an initiative that aims to help create 2,012 new food growing spaces by 2012 – with 50 to 100 of these based in Hackney. The vicarage garden is among its first five London sites.
Growing Communities is keen to hear from anyone who can offer land where they can grow produce.
They are also hoping to be able to recruit more apprentice farmers in the near future.
More information
For details of the Capital Growth scheme visit: www.capitalgrowth.org. Visit the box scheme at: www.growingcommunities.org.
All for trees and trees for all
A group that helps plant, protect and preserve Hackney’s trees is celebrating its tenth anniversary with a 2009 calendar.
The Tree Musketeers, and their predecessors the Hackney Tree Wardens, planted their first sapling on Stoke Newington Common in 1998.
All proceeds from the sale of their third Hackney Trees Calendar will go towards caring for the borough’s boughs.
Speaker of Hackney, Cllr Ian Rathbone, and Head of Parks, John Wade, were each presented with a copy in recognition of the close relationship between the Musketeers and the borough’s Parks department.
The calendar is available from nine outlets around Hackney, including Spark Cafe in Springfield Park; Hackney Museum shop, Reading Lane; Sublime, Victoria Park Road; and Stoke Newington Bookshop, Stoke Newington High Street.
The Musketeers have also joined forces with the Stoke Newington Common User Group (SNUG), to produce a free leaflet about the trees and history of Stoke Newington Common, which offers an insight into the flora and background of the N16 open space.
More information
For further details and more outlets call: 020 8985 5008 or 07758 326 530; or visit: www.hackneyenvironment.org.uk/tm.
Old furniture, new homes
A project that helps people on low incomes furnish their homes without getting into debt can provide a new lease of life for unwanted furniture.
Homestore will collect items from homes in Hackney for free, and then pass them on to people who are struggling to buy furniture.
One woman who recently bought a table and chairs said: “I borrowed a lot of money to put down a deposit on my flat and then had to borrow more money for the furniture.
“Homestore costs less than half what I was paying. It’s made all the difference to me.”
As well as helping those in need, donating an item prevents it from going to landfill.
The Council also offers a free removal service for bulky waste like fridges, cookers and furniture. It will remove up to five items per collection and make up to four collections per household each year. If an item is reusable, be sure to tell the operator when booking a collection.
To arrange a Homestore collection call: 020 8519 6264, or email: homestore@qsa.org.uk
To arrange a bulky waste collection call the Council’s wasteline on: 020 8356 6688.
Page updated: 5 Jan 2009