Waste Prevention
Love food, hate waste
Watch your waste challenge
Real nappies
Compost
Say no to junk mail
Shop smart
Give or take
Freecycle
Furniture reuse
Real Nappies
Why use real nappies?
Around 3% of waste in the UK comes from disposable nappies. This is equivalent to the weight of nearly 70,000 double decker buses each year. Real cotton nappies are easy to use, soft on the skin and don’t contain absorbent gels. Your local laundry service can collect dirty nappies and deliver clean ones to your home. Real nappies are cheaper, and could save you around £500 per baby if you wash your own.
Hackney Council offers a £54 voucher to residents who wish to use real cotton nappies, either to buy from participating businesses across London, or to get started with a nappy laundry service.
Parents can apply via the website at www.realnappiesforlondon.org.uk or via a form. To get an application form for the voucher, phone 020 7324 4709.
Laundry service
Residents can use their vouchers with the following nappy laundry services:
Nappy Ever After
www.nappyeverafter.co.uk
020 7383 5115
Real nappy support
The Hackney Real Nappy Network is a group of real nappy users who offer free advice, based on their own experience. To find out more, please visit www.hackneyrealnappy.net
Hackney real nappy events
For more information about real nappy activities and events in Hackney, please visit: www.realnappiesforlondon.org.uk
Home Composting
Up to 34% of what goes into an average Hackney household bin can be composted, which includes your food and garden waste. Composting can reduce waste and create a natural food for your garden.
In Hackney we throw away 18,000 tonnes of food waste per year or 50 tonnes per day! For this reason the council provides a choice of heavily subsidised compost bins and wormeries for residents to compost it. Residents can save up to 70% of the original retail price.
Please note, these offers are exclusively available to residents in the London Borough of Hackney If you don’t live in Hackney your order will not be accepted. Only one product unit per household available.
For more information read our Home Composting Leaflet. 
Home Composting Leaflet (146KB)
Why home composting is good for the environment
When organic waste rots in landfill without any air present, it produces a powerful greenhouse gas (methane) that cause climate change. Composting at home stops this happening because air can reach your food and garden waste as it breaks down. It also reduces the emissions caused by collecting garden waste and taking it to centralised sites.
Available produts:
- Compost bin, £9
- Wormery, £25
- Bokashi Bins, £12
- Compost Box, £19
- Water Butt kit, £35
Ask our ‘Doctor Compost’ your composting questions, see below.
Compost bin
The Garden King would be ideal for the smaller garden or as a special-purpose extra composter in a large garden. It comes in two sizes 330 and 220 litres. The Garden King features an easy-slide access hatch at the bottom for easier access to the ready compost at the bottom of the bin.
Suitable for large family or anyone with a large or medium outdoor space, either paved or with soil.
Size: 220 litres 82 cm (d) x or 87 cm (h) Subsidised price: £9.00 (RRP: £35.00) To order the Garden King bin, call Original Organics on 0808 120 9676 or order online at |
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Wormery: Can of Worms
A wormery is a great way to recycle your left over food. Worms are easy to keep and are an extraordinarily efficient way of converting kitchen food waste into liquid plant feed and rich, organic compost.
The can of worms with its innovative, layered structure lets you see at a glance what the worms are doing and how they are getting on. It includes the wormery housing and a supply of composting worms plus a selection of extras to help make your composting go smoothly.
The worms will compost almost everything except uncooked meat and fish.
Size: Size: 50 cm (d) x 73 cm (h). Subsidised price: £25.00 (RRP: £92.00) To order the Can of Worms, phone Wiggly Wigglers on 0800 216 990 and quote H0596 and your Hackney postcode or order online at www.wigglywigglers.co.uk and enter the code in the search box to obtain the Hackney price. Watch a 12 minute video of how to set up and maintain a can of worms > watch video |
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Bokashi Bins
Turn all your food scraps, including uncooked meat and fish, into rich compost with a Bokashi Kitchen Composter Kit. Start off your bokashi composting with one of the buckets. Keep adding your waste mixed with the Bokashi Active Bran until this bucket is full, then set it aside and leave it for a fortnight
After this you can safely add the ‘pickled’ contents to your conventional composter or dig them into your garden where they will compost amazingly quickly. Meanwhile you can carry on your composting using the second bucket. The Effective microOrganisms (Ems) in the bokashi bran eliminate the smells of putrefaction and decay.
Suitable for anyone that wants to compost all kitchen waste quicker but has a compost bin, an allotment or garden where to compost it afterwards
Subsidised price: £12.00 (RRP: £59.00) To order the Bokashi set, phone Wiggly Wigglers on 0800 216 990 and quote H2418 and your Hackney postcode or order online at www.wigglywigglers.co.uk and enter the code in the search box. Watch a 13 minute video on how to bokashi > watch video |
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Compost Box
CompostBox is the ideal way to keep it neat and has the wooden rustic effect. It is simple-to-assemble, made from treated wooden slats it builds in minutes into a composting tower. Its pre-cut slats just slot together for easy assembly and harvesting.
Size: 74cm (h) x 1 meter x 1 meter. Subsidised price: £19.00 (RRP: £55.00) To order the Compost Box, phone Wiggly Wigglers on 0800 216 990 and quote H0161 and your Hackney postcode or order online at www.wigglywigglers.co.uk and enter the code in the search box. |
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Rainsaver water butt
Around 85,000 litres of rain falls on the average house roof every year collect it in a water butt and you can have your own mini reservoir for watering your garden.
The kit includes:
Size: 66cm (d) x 97cm (h). Subsidised price: £34.00 (RRP: £50.00) To order The Rainsaver Water Butt phone Original Organics on 0808 120 9676 or order online at www.originalorganics.co.uk/hackney |
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Ask Hackney’s ‘Doctor Compost’ your composting questions
The London Community Recycling Network continues to work in partnership with Hackney Council to provide expert advice through their “Doctor Compost” phone line. You can contact London Community Recycling Network on 020 7324 4690 or email: compost@lcrn.org.uk
Fore more information on composting go to www.recyclenow.com/home_composting
Say no to junk mail
Hackney households receive approximately 35 million pieces of unwanted mail each year, which weighs 900 tonnes and takes 6,000 trees to create.
This pack was put together to dramatically reduce the amount of unwanted mail received by residents.
The pack is made up of the following:
- Instructions on how to sign up to the Mail Preference Service (MPS) online at www.mpsonline.org.uk.
- Residents who register can have their name and address removed from up to 95% of mailing lists.
- Royal Mail ‘Opt Out’ card – fill this in and return it, to stop unaddressed junk mail.
- No Junk Mail sticker – Place this on their letterbox to stop receiving flyers and leaflets through their door. This does not affect your delivery of Hackney Today!
- The ‘Say No To Junk Mail’ pack is available for all Hackney residents by request, phone the recycling hotline on 020 8356 6688 for your pack.
Shop Smart
SMART = Save Money And Reduce Trash
Smarter, more sustainable shopping practices will help reduce waste and could save you money as well.
It’s really easy, it doesn’t take any extra time, and can make a real difference!
How can I reduce my household waste?
- Always take reusable bags with you when you go shopping, and say no to plastic bags.
- Avoid buying over packaged food and products.
- Choose packaging that can be recycled, better still, look out for packaging made from recycled products.
- Freeze your home cooking in reusable containers, rather than buying over packaged convenience food.
- Buy in bulk. You’ll get more product in less packaging, and it often works out a lot cheaper.
- Buy a water filter, and refill your bottles instead of buying bottled water. This will reduce waste and save you money.
- Don’t buy disposable items like razors, cameras and pens. Choose reusable ones.
- Try to buy products made from recycled or part recycled materials.
- Buy high quality, durable products. They may be more expensive initially, but you’ll save money long term.
- Look out for energy efficient, rechargeable products like light bulbs and batteries.
- Try to repair things before buying replacements.
- Join a library instead of buying books.
- Join an organic box scheme. Enjoy quality produce delivered in minimal packaging.
Give or take
What are Give or Take days?
Give or take is a way of getting rid of items that you don't need, and taking items you do. Give or Take days provide a great opportunity to reuse in Hackney.
How does it work?
Simply turn up on the day with items that you want to give, or come along and take what you need. You don’t have to give something to take something.
What sort of items can I give or take?
You can give or take just about anything: garden and household items like books and toys, bikes, tools, kitchenware, clothes, bric-a-brac, plants, furniture and small electrical items.*
*No large electric items like fridges or washing machines can be accepted. All electrical goods will be safety tested on the day.
When are they held?
Give or take days are held by Hackney Council four times a year. Look out for details in Hackney Today or under the events section of the recycling page.
Alternatively, if you are interested in receiving information regarding future give or take days, please email recycling@hackney.gov.uk to be added to the mailing list, or phone the recycling hotline on 020 8356 6688.
Freecycle
What is Freecycle?
The Freecycle network is made up of over 3,600 Freecycle groups in over 50 countries worldwide, with around 2.5 million members. It's a grassroots and entirely non profit movement of people who are giving, and receiving, items for free in their own town or borough. The network provides individuals and non profit organisations with an electronic forum to ‘recycle’ unwanted items.
Who can join?
The Hackney Freecycle group is open to anyone who wants to reuse something rather than throw it away. Whether it's a chair, a fax machine, piano, or an old bed, you can post the details on the website. Or maybe you're looking to acquire something yourself. Not for profit groups are also welcome to participate.
How does it work?
When you find yourself with items you don’t need anymore, but that are too good to throw away, you simply send an email offering it to members of the Hackney Freecycle group. If you're looking to acquire something yourself, simply respond to a member's offer, and you just might get it. After that, it's up to the giver to decide who receives the item and to arrange a pickup time for passing on the item.
One rule: Everything posted must be free, legal, and appropriate for all ages.
How do I sign up?
Membership is free. To sign up in Hackney, email hackney_freecyclesubscribe@yahoogroups.com, or visit www.groups.yahoo.com/group/hackney_freecycle
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Furniture reuse
For more information please visit the Furniture Reuse Project page.
Page updated: 2 Sep 2009