London - Hackney's Shop SMART campaign

Say yes to cotton bags at the counter and help reduce plastic bag waste!

Plastic carrier bags have become an inevitable part of the high street shopping experience. A staggering 150,000,000 plastic bags are used in the UK every week, and each one takes around 100 years to rot away!

Hackney Council’s recycling team are on a mission to wipe out plastic bag waste in Hackney. The recycling team has visited shops around Hackney and distributed a supply of cotton bags, for the shop keepers to hand out at the counter with purchases. When residents shop at these stores, they will be offered a free cotton bag instead of a plastic carrier bag.

The cotton bags have some handy ‘shop smart’ hints printed on them, to remind residents to reduce the amount of waste produce whilst shopping.

Once you have your cotton bag, you can do your bit to make London cleaner and greener by:
• Using your shopping bag over and over again
• Remembering to take the cotton bag with you every time you go shopping. The cotton bags fold up well inside a handbag!
• Let the check out staff know you’ve brought your own before they pack for you!

See the list of shops taking part in this scheme below, and why not pop in to your local participating store and get your cotton bag today!




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London - Hackney Nappy Week celebrations

Real Nappy Week 2007 proved to be very popular for residents in Hackney, with swarms of parents and children attending the week’s events. Prize draws, face painting and fashion shows were just some of the activities happening.

The week kick started with a disposable nappy waste mountain in the Town Hall square. With over 2000 disposable nappies used each year per baby it was certainly a sight.

Parents and babies who attended Hackney’s first ever real nappy fashion show enjoyed a fun packed day out, with refreshments, music and entertainment for the older children. The fashion show was a great success, with lots of parents pledging to use real nappies after seeing how funky and easy real cloth nappies are. The recycling team would like to thank all of the budding young models who took to the runway on the day!

Hackney’s Real Nappy Network also attended Stoke Newington’s Farmers Market, providing lots of useful information on the Council’s £54 subsidy and real cloth nappy use.

Real nappies save money and are less than half the cost of disposables. About eight million disposable nappies are thrown away every day in the UK. Real nappies get used again and again. That's got to be a better way, so why not start using real nappies today!

Here some photos of the fashion show:





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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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UK - Finalist

The judges were really impressed with Hackney’s Give or Take days, which give residents the opportunity to give away unwanted items and take others they might want or need, so reducing waste. “There is a great community angle to it,” commented the judges.

Building on the Give or Take concept, Hackney decided to use the events to raise awareness of recycling and waste prevention. The judges praised Hackney’s initiative in arranging for furniture reuse and nappy laundry organisations to attend the events and further promote reuse and waste minimisation.

“They decided to take a little idea and make it into a big event. It works really well and looks very professional.”

Oh well, next year!!!

More about the night winners in here


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London - Hackney, Real Nappies 2005/06

Enlarge picture to read article
This is the story advertised in the Hackney Today on 21 August, 2006. Showing the results of a years worth of real nappy usage in Hackneys waste tonnage.

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London - Freecycle yahoo group

The Freecycle worldwide movement arrived in Hackney in 2006. Although there are many groups within London, I am promoting the Hackney one to help increase the number of members, so more is reused. It ties well with my Give or Takes. They are basically an online site where to give stuff away for free and more, read the add my team added in the Hackney Today local paper.

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