Recycling hits record high in Enfield (From This Is Local London)

Recycling hits record high in Enfield

11:53am Wednesday 11th July 2012 in Where I Live By Hermione Wright

Recycling is at an all-time high in Enfield, according to latest council figures.

Enfield Council revealed yesterday that householders recycled 646 tonnes of waste in just one week in May, beating a previous best of 550 tonnes.

Since recycling bin bags were replaced last year with wheelie bins, recycling of waste has increased from 32.4 per cent to 35 per cent.

Councillor Chris Bond, cabinet member for environment, said: “Our residents care about the environment and work incredibly hard with us to recycle as much as they possibly can.

"We are doing everything we can to make it easy for people to recycle and our latest figures show that our investment in new wheeled bins for residents across the borough, and our decision to retain weekly waste and recycling collections is paying off.”

However, the council admits it is not getting “complacent,” and urges people to carry on recycling to help divert waste from landfill and protect the environment.

The council is in the fourth phase of replacing bin bags for recycling with wheelie bins, and has delivered just over 200,000 wheelie bins to homes in the borough.

The changes have saved the council £1million in landfill fees as well as up to £250,000 in street cleaning to date.

According to the council, litter on some streets in the borough is down by 60 per cent because waste is less likely to spill from the new wheelie bins than the bin bags formerly used for recycling.