London, Hackney - Junk Mail trial results

Back in September 2006 I trialled the effectiveness of the sticker in Hackney letterboxes to stop unwanted leaflets entering residents' households. The story is here.

This Monday the results were published in the Hackney Today, here the story with me in the picture:



I must add that around 75% thought personally that the sticker worked, however some respondents confused direct mail junk mail with unwanted leaflets, and obviously these cant be stopped with the sticker, but by signing up to the Mailing Preference Service

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Europe - compilation of waste prevention practices on DVD

In the 1960s, the amount of municipal waste generated was close to 200 kg per capita per year. It now exceeds 500 kg. This exponential growth of (almost) all types of waste goes with a progressive exhaustion of resources, already inequitably shared and used among the world inhabitants. Faced with this situation, many local authorities have reacted by setting up action plans or pilot programmes aiming to stop this trend.

Eco-design, dematerialisation, reuse, repair, fight against food wastage, partnership with the retail sector, social marketing..., the initiatives taken in order to raise the awareness of households and enterprises are varied and, most often, source of knowledge and stimulation at the level of the European Union as a whole. Europe, a breeding-ground for good practices in the field of waste prevention is a double DVD which offers you to discover, by video, an original compilation of these good practices in Belgium, Italy, Spain and Austria. This European tour offers you new insight into the state-of-the-art of waste prevention and into what can be done in view to reducing waste. It is a new tool to capitalise good practices and to support the work of every elected representative or technician who is already involved in a similar approach, or is willing to implement, at the level of a borough or a county council, a waste management strategy that successfully integrates innovative and proven ingredients in other European countries. This DVD is one of the deliverables of the REDUCE project An innovative transnational strategy for minimising waste in North-Western Europe, which receives financial support from the European Interreg IIIB programme.

For further information on project's progress, visit the website www.reduce.be The DVD is available in English and French for the price of 20 Euros. To obtain a copy, contact: Espace Environnement, tel: 00.32.71.300.300 or outbind://55/info@espace-environnement.be

Additional informationThe "REDUCE" project initiates a large 4-year-campaign dedicated to the reduction of household waste, on both sides of the Channel. Based on Wallonia's experience in this field, this project is developing, indeed, a balanced, sustainable co-operation between the English, French and Belgian partners on waste prevention:

the NGO Espace Environnement (chef de file - B)
the County Council ICDI (B)
the Greater Dunkirk Urban District Council (F)
Recycle Western Riverside (UK)

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London, Hackney - Give or Take 5

Clearing out for the New Year? Do you have unwanted presents from Christmas? Have a pile of bits and bobs you don’t need but are too good to throw away? Why not bring along your unwanted items to the Give or Take day!

Hackney Council’s recycling team is holding the first Give or Take day of 2007 on Saturday 27 January, at Rushmore Primary School, Elderfield Road, E5 OLE.

Give or Take days have proved to be a great success, they offer residents the chance to give unwanted items like toys, furniture, clothes, bikes, tools, books and kitchenware, and take something that they might need. Previous Give or Take days have diverted as much as one tonne of donated materials from entering the waste stream; it’s a great way to reuse in Hackney.

Everything is free, no money is exchanged!

Too many items are thrown away each year, especially around the New Year period. Think about what can be reused before you throw it away, Give or Take days are a great way to help reduce the amount of rubbish produced in Hackney. Last year we reused around 3.5 tonnes of goods. For any questions or reports feel free to email me at wasteprevention@gmail.com

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London, Hackney - Waste Prevention Campaign

The waste prevention campaign for Hackney in East London was launched in November 2006. There has been so many things going on that I have hardly had time to update this blog. We promoting various things to reduce rubbish and dependency on landfill and incinerator as these two are seen as the last approach to deal with rubbish.

The booklet is available to all residents, but so far around 8,000 booklets have been distributed through the campaign. This highlights Shop SMART, Food waste, Reusable bags, Stop junk mail, Real nappies, Home composting, Furniture reuse, Freecycle and Give or take. See an example of the booklet in jpg format, there are 20 pages in total. I will add how this was implemented and exact figures later on.











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