Recycling plan aims to boost borough’s green goals

By Ben Lynch, Local Democracy Reporter

A borough-wide garden waste service and ‘kerbside mobile recycling centre’ are among the schemes Hammersmith and Fulham council is considering as it looks to hit waste and recycling targets. 

The schemes are just two of the actions listed in the local authority’s Reduction and Recycling Plan (RRP), covering the period from April last year to March 2025, intended to ensure one of the country’s lowest waste-producing areas meets set goals.

The plan, which has recently been submitted to the Greater London Authority (GLA), is required to ensure councils are contributing to the Mayor of London’s city-wide waste and recycling targets. These include cutting food waste by 50 per cent per person and recycling 65 per cent of the city’s rubbish by 2030.

Targets include reducing annual household waste per head, from 247.4 kilograms in 2019/20 to 240kgs in 2024/25, increasing the percentage of kerbside properties from which the main dry materials and separate food waste is collected from six per cent to 100 per cent, and increasing the annual household waste recycling rate from 26 per cent to 33 per cent.

Also listed in the RRP is a series of actions the council has already begun or plans to undertake, or is exploring the feasibility of delivering, to ensure it reaches its set targets. 

One of the largest items, making a separate food waste collection available to all properties, is currently being rolled out to kerbside homes alongside the introduction of new wheeled bins. 

A Hammersmith and Fulham spokesman confirmed the intention is to extend the food waste collection service to non-kerbside properties later in the year.

Beyond food waste, a borough-wide garden waste service is also being investigated for potential roll-out in the spring.

(Picture: Pixabay/Stux)