Against a long-term trend of low levels of recycling on housing estates, a scheme in Fulham has boosted participation rates for high rise flats on the Clem Attlee Estate to 98 per cent.

Schemes for street level properties are traditionally more successful than those serving flats, but a pilot project on this estate captured more recycling than similar systems across the country.

North Fulham New Deal for Communities, working in partnership with Hammersmith and Fulham Council and H&F Homes, commissioned London Remade Solutions and Sauce Consultancy to deliver the project in January 2008, and a third of residents from each block were surveyed before and after the scheme to test its success.

Results show that the number of people not recycling went down from nearly 20 per cent prior to the scheme to just two per cent after six months.

David Bowler, NDC programme director, said: “We are delighted that Clem Attlee residents see recycling as an important action which they can take to do their bit for the environment, despite the current economic times.  We hope the discussions with the local authority to mainstream this pilot scheme into council services will be successful during the forthcoming financial year.”

Other highlights:

• Three of the four recycling systems put in place (the chute, doorstep collection, bring banks and mini banks on each floor) out-performed schemes in other areas in terms of volume of waste collected.
• The schemes were cost effective when compared with doorstep services for high-rise flats in other parts of the country. The cost per tonne of recycling collected was just a fraction of that in other areas.
• Participation was high, with 66 per cent of households putting sacks out for their doorstep collection service as opposed to an average 58 per cent in similar systems in five other London boroughs. The number of sacks put into mini banks on each floor indicated that each household contributed an average of seven every week.
• Nearly 90 per cent of residents were either very or fairly satisfied with the service, up from just 66 per cent before the scheme.
• The number of residents contaminating bins with non-recycling items dropped from 33 per cent before the trial to only four per cent in six months.

For more information or a copy of the final report, please email info@sauceconsultancy.co.uk. Find out more about our partners London Remade Solutions here

Right click here to download BBC London’s radio coverage about the project (4mins 22secs – .WMA Format for Windows Media player). You may need additional software to play the file in your browser. It is recommended that you download the file and play with your computers own media player. This clip has been reproduced with the kind permission of the BBC. For more information contact us.

Tags: Hammersmith and Fulham Council, Trial scheme in Fulham

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 2:25 pm and is filed under News Archive. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.