Destination 50%
Our ambition is to achieve 50% recycling rates and be London’s number one borough for recycling in line with the Mayor of London’s target for 2030.
We have many varied recycling services across Haringey so all residents can get involved and do their part as easily and accessibly as possible.
To get from our current recycling rate of around 30% to our aim of 50%, we will work together with Haringey residents and local businesses to ensure your views and ideas are reflected in the work that we do and the services that we provide.
Together, we can achieve Destination 50%.
Why recycle?
Recycling is necessary to help protect our planet, environment, wildlife, and resources for future generations. It’s easy to do, and every little action helps to make a big impact.
There are many ways that recycling benefits all of us, including:
- Recycling saves tonnes of rubbish being disposed of as waste and in the UK it saves about 10-15 million tonnes of carbon emissions a year, the equivalent of taking 3.5 million cars off the road
- Recycling is a valuable resource and reduces the need for raw materials protecting natural habitats for the future. It reduces the need for extracting (mining, quarrying and logging), refining and processing raw materials, all of which create substantial air and water pollution
- It conserves energy as using recycled materials in the manufacturing process uses considerably less energy than that required for producing new products even when comparing all associated costs including transport. Mining and processing metal uses huge amounts of resources and energy and recycling cans saves up to 95% of the energy needed to make new cans from raw material
- It creates jobs and produces economic benefits, and it’s cheaper than disposing of waste. The more you recycle, and the less you put in the bin, the more money is saved, which is beneficial for households, businesses and local public services
- Find out much more with Recycle Now (external link)
How you can recycle
- Use your home or estate weekly recycling bin as much as possible by ensuring all relevant items go in your recycling bin
- Never put non-recyclable items in your recycling bin and wash out recyclable items where necessary - it can contaminate the entire collection
- Get a free food waste caddy and put all your leftover and out-of-date food in there for your weekly food waste recycling collection
- Use on-street recycling points for small electrical items (external link) and textiles (clothes and shoes)
- Recycle your batteries at Haringey Libraries
- If you live in a flat above a shop, use the green recycling sacks available at libraries and housing office concierges or by online request
- Sign up for weekly garden waste collections to recycle your green waste
- Use our online form to submit your ideas for how Haringey can reduce, reuse and recycle more
- Subscribe to the Reusable Nappy Scheme and get a £54.15 voucher towards the cost of real nappy products or laundry services
- Donate furniture you no longer need to a local charity
- We also provide recycling services for schools, and for businesses on request
- Host reuse, repair and upcycling events in partnership with North London Waste Authority (external link)
Share your ideas - how you can get involved
As recycling, reducing and reusing waste interests many of our residents, we want to get a better understanding of the current situation and how recycling is perceived across our communities.
We know that by improving current services and introducing new facilities, we believe that together we can achieve the Greater London Authority’s (GLA) 50% recycling target by 2030.
We need you, our residents, to help us in designing what those improvements and new facilities look like for you and your neighbourhood. We want to learn about how/if you recycle and what puts you off recycling.
Online survey
The survey has now closed and we would like to thank all residents who have shared their ideas. You can still submit your comments and ideas here
Future actions 2022-2023
Whilst we are proud of the huge range of recycling services already available in Haringey, we are dedicated to continuing to develop and improve our services to suit the evolving needs of our borough.
Below are some examples of what we have planned for the future to help us achieve Destination 50%:
- Engage with residents and local businesses to help shape our waste and recycling services going forward
- Increase the range of recyclable items that we accept at libraries to include keys and printer cartridges
- Provide more locations where you can collect green sacks for recycling
- Extend the range and quantity of materials that are reused and recycled to include carpets and furniture at our Reuse and Recycling Centre
- Work with NLWA, our disposal Authority, to increase what they recover from the refuse stream for recycling or reuse
- Support more reuse and repair waste prevention opportunities in Haringey by collaborating with the local community to do initiatives such as jumble trails, clothes swaps (swishing) and vintage fairs
- Increase recycling at schools to include more food waste, introduce textiles and battery recycling and have competitions to encourage participation
- Increase the number of on-street small electrical recycling points across the borough
- Trial a food waste collection service for flats above shops
- Explore improving food waste recycling options for blocks of flats
- Agree and implement a recycling contamination policy for Haringey to improve the quality and amount of recycling collected
- Work with Haringey environmental action groups to develop programmes to put us on a zero-waste trajectory
- Support Haringey businesses to reduce the use of single-use plastics
- Work with NLWA to establish a reuse and repair hub