Are you ready for new waste collections?
Our recycling engagement team have been working hard since they hit the streets earlier this year.
With household waste collections changing in August, they've been going door to door helping everyone to prepare by recycling as much of their waste as possible.
They've visited local schools, giving assemblies to almost 5,000 pupils, as well as supermarkets, libraries, churches, older peoples' housing and community centres.
The team also chatted with our growing Hong Kong community at Wokingham town's Lunar New Year event in February, and organised children's recycling activities for the Climate Coalition's Great Big Green Week.
Keep an eye out for them - they'll be giving out free green recycling bags and food waste bins, as well as indoor food caddies and helpful leaflets, to get you ready for a greener future.
Wheeled bin deliveries keep on rolling
From Monday, 12 August, we'll collect your rubbish every two weeks from a black wheeled bin. We've almost delivered 30,000 of these and should reach everyone by the end of July.
Recycling will be collected from green bags every two weeks, on weeks when rubbish isn't emptied, and food waste collections are staying weekly.
You can collect free green bags and food waste bins from our hubs, so please make sure you've got enough - and make best use of your green bags by washing and squashing the contents.
We recycle 55 per cent of our waste in Wokingham Borough, which puts us among the nation’s top recyclers, but this would be 70 per cent if we recycled all we could.
As well as helping the planet, recycling more will ensure there’s enough space in your rubbish bin for the few things that belong in it.
More details coming before the change
Your usual collection day isn’t changing, but some households will start the new service with a rubbish collection while others will start with a recycling collection.
We'll be posting a calendar to every household soon, and you'll be able to look up your collection weeks on our website.
Please don't put your rubbish out for collection in the wheeled bin yet, as we can't take it. Keep using your remaining blue bags for now.
Did you know?
Can I recycle tea bags with other food waste in my kitchen caddy?
Yes. All food waste we collect go to an anaerobic digestion plant in Oxfordshire, where all non-organic materials are removed before it goes through the recycling process.
During the process, the food waste is broken down by bacteria, creating a gas called methane. This gas is converted into electricity to power homes.
The food waste also breaks down into a liquid fertiliser, rich in nitrogen, for using in farmers' fields, gardens and parks to improve soil and help plants grow.
Keep unwanted clothes out of your bin
Unwanted clothes don't necessarily end up in your bin. There are several ways to give them a second life:
Donate
Clothes and textiles that are in good condition can be donated to help raise money to support charities. You can:
Items that aren’t suitable to be passed onto someone else can be recycled and made into new items, such as padding for chairs and car seats, cleaning cloths and industrial blankets.
Textile take-back schemes
Some brands or retailers, such as Primark, Dunelm and George, offer a 'textile take-back scheme' in some of their stores. They accept clean items, even if they are ripped or torn.
You can drop off your pre-loved clothing and textiles in the collection point in-store. Items collected will be re-used, donated or re-purposed into something new.
Donate your old running shoes
JogOn's mission is to get one million running shoes out of landfill. You can support this meaningful cause by sending your unwanted shoes to them.
Running shoes and trainers in any condition are accepted. You don't need to wash them before sending, but please make sure they are fully dry if you want to.
JogOn sorts, inspects the shoes collected and works with its partner to distribute them to organisations in the UK and overseas. For those not suitable to be used again, JogOn filters them out. They only destroy the "end of life" shoes if there is no prospect of them being used again.
To find out how to send your shoes, visit the JogOn website.
|