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Week ending Friday 17 February 2017
Havering Council spends £14m a year disposing of waste and it's going up by £1m a year which is why it’s so important that everyone plays their part in reducing waste, preventing litter and keeping our borough clean and safe.
Be a hero this March
 Keep Britain Tidy's biggest-ever litter campaign, the Great British Spring Clean, is looking for half a million litter heroes to help clean up our country.
The #GBSpringClean will take place from March 3-5, and is being supported by, among others, TV naturalist and writer Steve Backshall, the BAFTA award-winning Deadly 60 presenter.
The campaign is being backed by the RSPCA, the Marine Conservation Society, McDonald's, Greggs, Harrogate Spring Water, Lidl, Costa, and many other organisations.
We need your help to make your part of Havering a place in which we can all be proud. Sign up now and spread the word to your friends, family, and colleagues. Events are planned locally in Hornchurch and Romford.
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Free Compost Workshops
More than a third of household waste can be composted. Not just vegetable peelings and garden waste but all sorts of other packaging and paper that otherwise end up in black bags could be composted. Not only can composting reduce the £14 million the Council has to spend on waste disposal annually but will make nutrient rich food for your garden for free! Find out more at one of our composting workshops:
Thursday 9 March: 5.30pm-7pm Hornchurch Library
Friday 31 March: 2pm-3.30pm Rainham Hall
Wednesday 12 April:10am-11.30am Romford Library
To request a place email sue.brown@havering.gov.uk or click on the button below. Workshop places will be booked on a first come, first served basis.
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Have you got money sitting in your London Green Points Account?
If you're registered for the London Green
Points-Havering free residents reward scheme you
will be getting points credited to your account every three months, or more
often if you have attended a workshop to help reduce waste or purchased a
compost bin or real nappies sample pack.
These points are converted into money which can be spent in the online
store, transferred into a shopping voucher, or
donated to a local charity that is registered to the scheme.
The
money is yours, it’s free and all you need to do is spend it! To sign into your account or to join the
London Green Points-Havering scheme click below.
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 The textile collection service from recycling bring banks in various locations around the borough has been improved to collect a variety of extra materials and items. In addition to clothes, the banks now accept sheets, towels, curtains, duvets/quilts, pillows, handbags/belts, shoes, bric-a-brac and DVDs/CDs.
Please note that all items must be dry and clean.To find your nearest textile bring bank click below.
Improving local rivers
The Roding Beam and Ingrebourne Catchment Partnership, a
group of organisations that meet for the improvement of these local rivers are holding a public drop-in consultation at the YMCA Roneo Corner, Romford between 10.30am and 3pm on Saturday 25 February.
The event is for residents and
stakeholders to contribute to establishing a vision for how Grenfell Park and
the River Rom that flows through it, can be improved for wildlife and
local people to enjoy.
If you can't get to the YMCA on that day the map of the park
will also be available at Romford Library from 27 February to
3 March.
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 There was a temporary shortage of orange sacks available in libraries and Council buildings earlier this month due to a large increase in the number of rolls collected by residents.
Rolls of orange sacks are delivered to all households every 13 weeks, and so rolls from the libraries should only be for a top up if you run out before your next collection. If you haven't received a roll to your door for over three months then please contact Shanks on 0800 389 9918.
Trying to prevent waste from occurring altogether is best, but not always possible, so please try to recycle as much as you can.
Apart from the obvious items that are typically put in the orange sacks, there are many other items around our homes that can go into the sacks which may get missed, otherwise known as ‘the Unusual Suspects’*. For lots of examples of those ‘unusual suspect’ household items visit www.recyclenow.com.
*Recycle for London campaign
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Pour it away
 It costs Havering around £135,000 per year to dispose of unemptied drinks bottles - so please pour any leftover drinks down the sink!
Then you can put your plastic bottle in your orange recycling sack or take your glass bottle to one of our many recycling bring bank sites around the borough.
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Food for thought
Around 40% of household rubbish in Havering is made up of food waste.
We mainly throw away food because either we've cooked too much or we've not eaten it before it goes off.
If you do have to throw some food away make sure that any uncooked fruit and vegetable waste is being recycled by purchasing a subsidised compost bin from Get Composting for just £14.99 including delivery. This composter comes with a kitchen caddy to make it easy to collect food scraps in your kitchen and turn them into nutrition for your garden.
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Watch this short video demonstrating the domestic rubbish and recycling collection service, delivered by Serco Environmental Services for Havering Council, to find out what happens to your waste.
The Havering Waste & Recycling Team has been working with local foodbanks to provide volunteers at the foodbanks with
Love Food Hate Waste training so that they can pass on helpful tips to foodbank users on food planning, budgeting, and stretching the life of the food
that they receive.
Meal planning, portions, storage,
dates and leftovers are the five key principles of the Love Food Hate Waste
Campaign.
 If you've got items that you no longer need, think about passing them on
to someone else instead of throwing them out.
There are lots of reuse organisations that you can use to find your stuff a
good home, including Havering
Freegle, and the National
Childbirth Trust's nearly new sales. See a
list here.
Havering recycling team has
arranged another sewing workshop from 10.30am to 12.30pm on Tuesday 28 February at Romford Baptist Church, Main Road. So whether you are new to sewing and
want to learn some basic repair skills or would like advice on how to alter or
upcycle an item of clothing you have at home then this workshop is for you.
Booking is essential so please
go to www.havering.gov.uk/loveyourclothes
and click on ‘Book a sewing workshop’ and a recycling officer will get back to
you. These workshops are very popular so if you have already attended one we
cannot offer you another place.
Miles the Mole says “do your share & help clear the air”!
Air pollution in London is linked to almost 10,000 premature deaths a year.
By turning off your engine
whenever possible you can help us improve our air quality.
Be prepared for ‘bad air
days’ and sign up for pollution alerts by SMS text or voicemail at www.airtext.info/signup
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