Richmond Council

EcoAction sits within the recycling department and works closely with the community and schools raising awareness and providing information on waste reduction, reuse and recycling for a sustainable future.

EcoAction is present at community events, fairs and festivals with waste reduction and recycling information for borough residents. Staff are also available to give informative talks on issues surrounding waste and recycling.

EcoAction run Give and Take Days around the borough. These are events where good condition donated items are redistributed to people free of charge for reuse.

Become a recycling champion

Do you feel strongly about recycling, reducing waste and want to help the environment? Would you like to do more within your community? If yes, follow this link to find out more about joining the Recycling Champions Scheme.

Reuse schemes

Heavily used by schools, community groups and residents on low incomes:

• Scrapstore scheme
• Community RePaint scheme
• Bin Blitz scheme
• Furniture scheme
• Recycling in schools

Working closely with schools, EcoAction provides a comprehensive education programme including slide shows, school waste audits, and a range of recycled craft activities. See recycling in schools for more information.

Community groups

Local community groups EcoAction works with and supports:

ZWIN (Zero Waste Initiative)
Local Agenda 21
REN (Richmond Environment Network)

CONTACT DETAILS

The EcoAction office is based at the central depot on Langhorn Drive Twickenham, TW2 7SG

RECYCLING

Each year in Richmond upon Thames households produce over 85,000 tonnes of waste; this is enough to more than fill the Twickenham Rugby Stadium. Currently 32% of the borough's household waste is being recycled, and half of Richmond residents recycle on a regular basis.

Recycling in the home

A wide range of materials can be easily recycled directly from the home, by using the: Black box and Blue Bag recycling scheme, Food waste recycling scheme, Garden waste collection service , A compost bin , Plastics recycling

Richmond Council also offers a service to find out how to reduce the amount of unwanted mail that comes through your door, and obtain a free "No junk mail" sticker.

Recycling Garden Waste

Recycling garden waste benefits the environment and helps reduce the effects of climate change. Because of the environmental problems associated with sending garden waste to landfill it is not accepted as part of the normal waste collection. Garden waste can be recycled in a number of different ways. You may find it best to use a combination of methods, which meet your needs.

Flats recycling pilot scheme launched A pilot scheme enabling people in flats to recycle cardboard and plastic bottles has been launched by Richmond Council in February 2007. This has been made possible by funding received from the London Recycling Fund. The scheme has been set up for those who live in blocks of flats with more than 10 units. If you live in a block of flats with less than 10 units you can recycle using the kerbside collection.

Commercial Recycling - Future plans The borough's long-term waste and recycling collection services are presently being reviewed. Commercial recycling collections are going to be considered as part of the second part of the review and hopefully implemented in 2007. In the interim to help business in the borough that want to recycle their waste a comprehensive list has been compiled of private organisations who offer commercial recycling collections for a wide variety of materials and who operate in and around Richmond upon Thames, as well as other resources to help businesses operate more sustainably.

Schools

We are currently reviewing the schools' recycling services that we offer and are keen to help schools set recycling targets for their pupils and get as involved as possible. We can help you implement the following recycling schemes into schools: Paper, cans and glass collections, Cardboard banks, Organic waste recycling at school which includes; composting, food waste and green waste.

Regretfully we cannot offer any on site collection for plastic bottles at present. Plastic bottle bring banks are being sited around the borough.

Recycling Facilities

There are 123 recycling sites across the borough which residents can use to take a variety of materials from cardboard and paper to glass bottles and cans to be recycled.

Adopt a recycling site scheme Of the 123 recycling sites situated across the Borough, did you know that over 40 of these sites have been adopted by community groups in the area. In return for helping manage these sites, the Council offers a generous quarterly payment.

Landfill

The refuse collection service collects household waste (rubbish) from every household in the Borough. To keep landfill to a minimum and to keep a clean and green environment, we encourage you to reduce, reuse and recycle as much as possible. As a Borough resident, you may have bulky items of waste or furniture to dispose of you can either dispose of this yourself at the local civic amenity site at Townmead Road

How are we meeting standards It is our aim to be the cleanest and greenest borough in London. We encourage producers of waste to manage their waste responsibly and help us to protect our environment.

We offer a trade waste collection service for all business in the Borough however large of small. Collections can be arranged on a daily to weekly basis.

If you are a registered charity you may benefit from one free commercial waste collection per week.

White Sacks service Mostly used by businesses that have little space for bins for example restaurants and wine bars that have a daily collection service or small offices that produce small amounts of waste.

We provide you with the white sacks, which have the Council logo on them. We issue the sacks twice yearly having discussed with you, your business requirements.

CONTACT DETAILS

Flats recycling pilot scheme - Dimitra Rizou on 020 8487 5171, or by email: d.rizou@richmond.gov.uk

Schools Recycling - the EcoAction office on 020 8891 7063 or send an email to eco@richmond.gov.uk.

Adopt a recycling site scheme - If you are a member of a group who would like to get involved, please phone 08456 122 660 or email: recycling@richmond.gov.uk.

Commercial waste - Please call our Commercial Waste Officer on 020 8891 7057 for further information.

POLLUTION

Increasingly it is thought that high levels of air pollution are detrimental to health, especially for susceptible members of the community, such as the elderly, children, asthmatics and individuals with bronchitis. It is important to the Council to ensure that pollution levels are regularly checked to protect the population of the Borough.

Monitoring of air quality in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames takes place 24 hours a day. Currently the section has one mobile monitoring unit and two static units. One is located in Castelnau outside the Public Library and the other is at the Wetlands site. The mobile unit is moved around the borough to different locations.

Continuous Monitoring of the following pollutants is carried out:

• Nitrogen dioxide NO2
• Sulphour dioxide SO2
• Ozone O3
• Carbon Monoxide CO
• Particulates PM10's
• Benzene BTEX
• Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons PAHs

We also run a program of background monitoring of the pollutant NO2, this is achieved using diffusion tubes, which are located at a number of sites throughout the borough. In addition we monitor at five sites for Benzene and one site for PAH.

All local authorities have been given objectives by the Government to reach air quality targets by 2005. In Richmond this is being carried out in a process of review and assessmet.

Environment Agency is responsible for maintaining or improving the quality of fresh, marine, surface and underground water in England and Wales.

The aim is to prevent or reduce the risk of water pollution wherever possible, and to ensure that it gets cleaned up if pollution occurs that might lead to effects on ecosystems and or people.

CONTACT DETAILS

To complain about the quality of a water course and to report a pollution incident you can ring the Environment Agency on their 'Pollution Hotline' 0800 807060.

BIODIVERSITY

The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames covers approximately 5,500 hectares and it is the only London Borough to straddle both sides of the River Thames. Richmond is believed to be one of the richest boroughs in London in terms of the total area of green space, the quality and diversity of parks, open spaces and conservation areas and the wealth of different habitats and species these areas support, as many of the species are also important on a regional, national and international scale.

Did you know that Richmond Borough:

• Has the largest total area of acid grassland in Greater London with 620 hectares, which is nearly 50% of London's total acid grassland habitat.

• Has the longest stretch of the River Thames and is the only London Borough to straddle both sides of the Thames.

• Is one of the top three London Boroughs for seeing stag beetles.

The Council aims to encourage more people to get involved in nature conservation activities and the management of wildlife sites to make our open spaces nicer places. The Council has:

• Set up the Richmond Biodiversity Partnership and produced a Local Biodiversity Action Plan.

• Established a rolling programme of works to control and eradicate the infestation of Japanese knotweed on all Council managed or owned sites.

• Accurate and accessible records for all the conservation sites that were surveyed for wildlife habitats in 1992 and 1999.

• Designated six sites as Local Nature Reserves.

• Ensured that all conservation areas are managed for both people and wildlife and introduced sympathetic management regimes to ensure both habitats and species are protected and enhanced.

CONTACT DETAILS

Would you like to help conserve local biodiversity? You do not need to be an expert to get involved but if you are interested and want to find out more and/or would like to join the Richmond Biodiversity Group or contribute to one of the Species or Habitat Action Plans.

Contact the Chair of Richmond Biodiversity Group 020 8831 6125

British Trust for Conservation Volunteers 020 8831 6150