Brent residents can win a £100 voucher to buy eco-friendly, organic and Fairtrade goods by taking part in a competition from today (16 February) which is being run by Brent Council's Recycle More campaign.
Every household in the borough can enter the Message in a Bottle competition by filling in a form available in the Green Pages of the February/March issue of The Brent Magazine, which will be dropping through residents' doors from 16 February.
The form must be put into a plastic bottle and placed in a household's blue top recycling bin from 27 February to 9 March along with all the other items recycled by a household. Households can also put their plastic bottles containing the forms into mixed recycling bins in flats. The forms will be taken out of the bottles when the bins are collected and they will be put together for a random prize draw organised by Recycle More. The forms can also be dropped off to staff if residents visit Brent Council's Reuse and Recycling Centre in Abbey Road, Park Royal, from 27 February to 9 March.
Thirteen Brent residents will receive vouchers worth £100 which can be spent with The Ethical Superstore - an online retailer offering environmentally friendly products including beauty, home and garden, gift, fashion, children's and grocery products.
Textile Recycling
International development charity TRAID is teaming up with Brent Council to deliver special in-depth environmental education for schools with activities to promote textile recycling, reuse and waste.
The charity will be working with pupils of all ages offering high quality, challenging and interactive assemblies, workshops and special projects to help pupils learn more about reuse and recycling. The focus will be on textile waste including the life cycle of clothes, school uniforms and fashion.
The charity will be working in Brent throughout 2012, delivering 20 primary school assemblies and workshops, two hand-sewing events, eight secondary school workshops, and a project with a secondary school. In addition, there will be a free education pack 'Behind the Seams' for Key Stage 3 and 4 pupils to help them investigate the impact of textiles and textile waste on people's lives and the environment.
The programme starts this month and will be launched at Malorees Infant School, Preston Park Primary School, St Joseph's Primary School and Alperton Secondary School with more schools joining later on.
Lyla Patel, TRAID's Head of Education, said: "Schools are a vital space where children and young people can engage in sustainable practices like reuse and recycling, which in many cases they bring home to their families as part of a positive learning cycle. It's great that we can support local schools, teachers and students in Brent to keep sustainability where it should be, high on the curriculum."
Recycling Rate Hits 42 per cent
Brent Council has congratulated the borough's residents after they substantially increased recycling in Brent, achieving a combined recycling rate of 42 per cent in the first months of the new service.
The latest figures published by the local authority demonstrate a 12 per cent increase in recycling under the new recycling and waste system after its first three months, which amounted to an extra 2,090 tonnes of waste recycled by Brent's residents.
The amount of organic waste recycled rose from 3,324 tonnes to 3,888 compared with the same three months under the old system; 'dry' recycling rose from 3,998 tonnes to 5,524 tonnes while waste sent to landfill plummeted from 16, 611 to 12,976 tonnes.
Recycle Electrical Items
Brent Council is encouraging residents to recycle any of their unwanted electrical items in the new year rather than contribute to landfill waste by throwing them out.
The local authority is supporting the national WEEE Recycle campaign which aims to reduce the amount of waste electrical and electronic equipment - or WEEE - thrown away by five per cent. In 2010, 325 tonnes of electronic and electrical waste were recycled by Brent's residents.
Brent Council is reminding residents that electronic waste such as televisions, hi-fis, computers, microwaves, toasters and CD players can all be recycled at the Brent Reuse and Recycling Centre in Abbey Road, Park Royal, and should not be thrown out in your landfill bin. The centre is open seven days a week from 8am to 4pm.
What goes in the Blue Bins
Reusing 2 litre Plastic Bottles
Preston Park Primary School has been teaching their children a lot about green issues and gardening. They have built a greenhouse out two litre plastic bottles.
Regional winners of the TOTAL Green School Awards announced!
Preston Park Primary School have won the London and South East regional award in the Totally Active Green School Awards.
They won for the amazing animals they keep at the school, they have goats, hens, finches, rabbits, ducks and fish, as well as a wildlife area and walk.
High tech recycling comes to Wembley
Blue Bins
Our new Blue Bins have arrived! In addition to our old range of paper, metal, glass and plastic bottle recycling we can now also recycle juice and milk cartons as well as household plastic packaging. Cardboard and cartons no longer go in the green bin, but in the new blue bin! Let's make it a real success and starve our grey landfill bins. This also makes the green box redundant. Any good ideas on how to reuse them? Suggestions welcome!
Recycling service -What has changed?
The green box has been replaced with a new blue top wheeled bin.
All the materials that you currently recycle in the green box will continue to be collected.
Paper, metal tins and cans, glass bottles and jars, plastic bottles, aluminium foil and aerosols will all be collected.
For the first time mixed plastic containers, cardboard and food and drinks cartons will be accepted for recycling.
Textiles, shoes, household and car batteries and engine oil will also be collected however they need to be kept separate and cannot be placed together with the other materials in the recycling bin. Please use clear plastic bags or clearly labelled bags for this purpose and place these next to the recycling bin on your collection day.
