Ecosurety Exploration Fund project with ReLondon delivers boost to recycling rates

In just over one year, a pilot introducing food waste recycling, textiles and small electricals collections on four estates in Lambeth, has defied the barriers to recycling commonly ascribed to households without standard kerbside collection.

Funded by the Ecosurety Exploration Fund and ReLondon, the pilots were based on in-depth resident insights and run by ReLondon together with the London Borough of Lambeth and Peabody to explore new ways of increasing recycling from purpose-built flats.

Transformational findings

A new report released this July by ReLondon has revealed the formula used to help the London Borough of Lambeth and Peabody to achieve increased recycling rates.

By adding food waste collections, refreshing and relaunching recycling facilities; and communicating with residents to make the right choices around recycling, four estates achieved increased capture rates of dry materials, a 152% increase in recycling rates, a 45% reduction of food waste thrown away in the residual waste, and an average of 35% of food waste being put into the right bin. The results were mainly driven by high food waste capture rates, which in some cases were comparable with those seen in local authority kerbside collections.

The right tools for the job

To ensure maximum results for the pilots, the project team built on its previous research and intervention on London’s estates by introducing regular collections of used clothes, placing brightly coloured bins for small electrical items, new bins for collecting large cardboard packaging food waste recycling, and residual waste bins on all four estates. All the waste streams were co-located to make it easier to recycle a range of materials at once.