Waste & Recycling
Every day across south and west London hundreds of thousands of items that could be recycled or reused are sent to landfill. We work with communities to educate and promote the benefits of waste minimisation and reduction.
Habitats & Heritage have undertaken a number of projects in this field including:
- Supporting the setup of The Real Junk Food Project Twickenham, a pop-up café that collects food from local shops and restaurants destined for landfill and with the help of a dedicated team of local volunteers turn it into delicious, healthy meals to serve to the community on a ‘Pay as You Feel’ basis. Since June 2018 they have saved over 10 tonnes of food waste from going to landfill and fed over 2,500 people of all ages and backgrounds.
- Home composting champions – we were commissioned by West London Waste Authority to promote home composting across the London Boroughs of Richmond and Hounslow speaking to 500 people at a series of 8 events at garden centres and other public locations.
- Increasing participation in London Borough of Richmond’s recycling and food waste collection service. We won a competitive bidding process to support residents to get the most out of the service. We employed a project manager and team of five recycling advisers to help residents understand what materials could be recycled and to investigate issues that were preventing residents from making full use of the service. We called at 12,700 houses across the Borough speaking to approximately 4,700 people and compiled a report on our findings to assist Richmond Council in improving participation rates.
- Recycling in London Borough of Richmond flats – We were commissioned by Richmond Council to undertake a survey of residents living in flats in Ham and Whitton to assist them in minimising food waste and understand barriers to using the dry recyclables collection points provided on estates.
- Flippin’ Food Waste – we worked with environmental campaigning charity Hubbub, local restaurants and schools on a project to encourage residents of west London to reduce their food waste, organising events including a pancake cook up in central Richmond.