We all must increase the amount we recycle and compost. Each year, 106 million tons of rubbish is  sent to UK landfill sites. Every two hours in the UK, we produce enough rubbish to fill the Royal Albert Hall!  Nationally, recycling rates are still only 40% which means 60% of UK waste is buried or incinerated. We can and must do better.  The Netherlands manages  to recycle 64% of its rubbish.

Bromley residents produce more waste than any other London borough - 130,000 tonnes a year - and a commendable 55% is now recycled.   Bromley Council  collect glass, cans and plastic from most households fortnightly and food and paper every week.

You could be fined £50,000 if you use a waste contractor who is not a licensed waste carrier. You can check here or call 0800 80 70 60

Graffiti visible from the public highway will be cleaned off free of charge. Call Bromley Council on 020 8313 4557 or report online.

Noise - Environmental Health Officers are on hand if you have a problem with noisy neighbours. Phone 020 8313 4830 office hours or 020 8464 4848 out of hours. More information. 

Food for Thought

Litter louts cost councils £858 million a year to clear up - which means larger council bills.

 
Britons throw away a third of the food they buy, representing 3.6 million tonnes of good food going in the bin each year. Video.This is a disgraceful statistic, when one considers the number of starving people in the world. The Fareshare  charity redistributes some of the food from supermarkets that would otherwise also be wasted.

At Christmas, over 112,000 tonnes of waste will be binned, including nearly 100,000 miles of wrapping paper.

If everyone in the UK with gas central heating had a condensing boiler, it would save enough energy to heat over 3.7 million homes for a year.

More than 17 billion plastic carrier bags are given away by supermarkets each year, equal to 290 bags per person. Take some bags with you and use them instead. Tesco gives you a green clubcard point for each bag saved.  More information on plastic

Packaging accounts for equivalent weight of 245 jumbo jets per week in the UK. Avoid packaged fruit and vegetables in particular when supermarket shopping. Marks and Spencer success story.

There are 2.3 million tonnes of glass in the waste stream. Did you know that recycling 1 glass bottle or jar saves enough energy to power your TV for 1½ hours? 

13,000,000 disposable nappies are used by Bromley babies every year. All go in the dustbin then to landfill where they take over 200 years to rot down. It costs Bromley Council (and therefore its ratepayers) ratepayers £160,000 in disposal costs. Why not instead use real (washable) nappies ? More information.

5 billion aluminium drink cans (weighing 78,000 tonnes) are bought every year in the UK; over 60% end up in landfill. Switzerland and Finland currently have the highest recycling rate at 91% If all were  recycled, there would be 14 million fewer dustbins. More information on cans can be found here.

150,000 cars are abandoned each year on Britain's streets. Bromley have more cars per household( nearly 2,000 households have 4 or more!) than any other London borough. But nearly a quarter have no car at all. Bromley Council offers a free collection service.  Call 020 8315 4236 for details.

1.5 million computers are disposed of each year, many in perfect working order just out of date. But there are plenty of charities, like ComputerAid,  that can make good use of them by sending them to projects in Africa.

12,500 Fridges are disposed of annually in Bromley Borough. Don't dump them anywhere other than a Council tip. It is  unsightly and illegal.  Bromley Council recently fined a local resident £665 so it could also be very costly. Report anyone seen dumping rubbish on 020 8313 4860. You can arrange for a collection of fridges and other bulky items. (charge made)

Leaving electrical appliances on standby accounts for seven percent of the total energy used by British Homes - so switch them OFF. One answer would be to buy a Bye Bye Standby

680 million batteries (weighing 20,000-30,000 tonnes) are thrown away each year and only 16% are recycled. But is now really easy to recycle them as most stores that sell batteries are required by law to provide a container where you can return the old battery. Did you know that the energy needed to make a battery is actually 50 times more than the energy it gives!!  Batteries contain deadly heavy metals – including cadmium and mercury, which never degrade.  This means all the batteries which end up in landfill can leak these metals into the environment and food chain, finding their way into our bodies, causing severe health problems.  The single largest source of mercury in household rubbish is batteries, especially alkaline and button cell batteries. Use rechargeable batteries instead and save money as well as the environment. 

70% of households have insufficient loft insulation ( more than 150mm and ideally 270mm ) which means that £3 billion pounds is being wasted heating the sky and contributing to climate change.

Carbon Dioxide levels are now 40% higher than they were before the start of the industrial revolution began in late 18th & early 19th centuries. The atmospheric concentration of CO₂ is now higher than experienced on Earth for at least the last 800,000 years and probably over 20 million years, and is expected to continue to rise at an increasing rate, leading to significant temperature increases in the atmosphere and oceans in the coming decades. Individuals are responsible for 85 per cent of the UK's total CO2 emissions. We therefore have the power to reduce emissions significantly by making low-carbon choices.

Recycling Opportunities in Poverest

The council collects plastic bottles, glass jars and cans fortnightly, and paper and food every week from your home. Please use them! There are also public recycling facilities in Cray Valley Road and in St. Mary Cray station car park and  other sites across the Borough.  Please use them, but don't drive there specially as you'll use far more energy than saved by recycling.

Plastic milk cartons can also be recycled at Sainsbury's at Bromley and Chislehurst High Street.  Better still - let the milkman deliver your milk in a re-useable glass bottle.

Books can be donated to a charity shop.or certain ones only to Community Heart, a charity that helps people in Africa. If you have a huge quantity then maybe Recycle Books may want them

Bicycles - give your old bike to Re-Cycle ( 01206 382207 ) who will recondition it and ship it developing countries. Some other ideas from  London Cycling Campaign.

Computers.  Computer Aid  recycles unwanted computers for use in schools and community organisations in the developing world. Call 020 7281 0091 for more details. There is also Donate A PC  primarily for those with one item to donate.

Ink Cartridges -  95% of the 30 million discarded each year are land filled presently. Instead, refill them ( look on the web ) or send them away to be refilled. Or you can donate them to a number of charities ( Save the Children; British Red Cross are but two )  who receive money for each one handed in. 

Milk, soup & juice cartons (like Tetra Pak) are made of paper (77%), polyethylene (18%) and aluminium foil (5%) and have not in the past been easily recyclable. But the industry has been working on this and you can see what they are up to here.  Currently, Bromley Council have no facilities to collect these, but you can recycle them at Tescos, Sidcup.

Mobile Phones. There are many places to hand in your old mobile and do good. Look in the window of your local charity shop for example. For every old oneyou hand in, Tesco will donate £5 to charity or give you 250 Clubcard points and donate £2.50 to charity. Pick up an envelope from store and send mobile back to Freepost address on envelope. Another scheme is run by Community Fonebak.

Tyres - use retread car tyres instead of buying new. 48 million used Tyres were disposed of 2004 and are now either used to make other things, burnt, or retreaded.  Tyre Recovery Association

Recycling Guide -  The site emphasises the importance of recycling and provides advice on  how people can recycle at home, in schools and how to recycle  different materials. The guide also has a useful tips section and is easy to follow due to the detailed illustrations.

Waste Connect - find nearest place to recycle what you want

• Children's Scrap Store - resource for childrens art and play activities
• Curtain Exchange - recycle or exchange your curtains
• Freecycle
• Netcycler
• Age UK- recycling to raise funds
• Re-Cycle - reconditions old bikes and ships overseas
• Recycling of Used Plastic Containers (RECOUP)
• Recycling Appeal (UK)
• Samaritan's Purse International UK - one old mobile can feed a child for a week in Eastern Europe
• Save a Cup - persuade your employer to recycle plastic vending cups
• Squirrells (Community Scrap Scheme) -
• Tools for Self Reliance
• Tools with a Mission - 01305 852799 is a Christian Charity sending gifts of good quality tools into many countries
• Use It Again - building materials
• Vision Aid Overseas - donate your old pair of glasses (not bifocals or varifocals)
• Work Twice - batteries, light bulbs, computer hardware etc.
• World in Sight - donate your old spectacles at D&A