Recycle for London is launching “One bin is rubbish – sort it out”, a new campaign to help Londoners tackle the lack of bins or containers to put their recycling in at home.
The campaign – run by Resource London – highlights new research that shows almost a third (31%) would be embarrassed for others to see how messy their bin area is, with a further 32% admitting that the ugliest part of their home is where they keep their bin.
The survey, conducted with 2,000 London residents, highlighted a lack of space in homes as the biggest challenge to staying on top of our recycling.
Over half (52%) of respondents said that they experience ‘bin-digestion’ at least once a week – the need to pile up recycling items around a rubbish bin because of limited space – and over a third (38%) agreed that they would recycle more if they had more than one bin at home.
“Having a dedicated recycling bin for inside the home is a great option, but there are plenty of simple, low cost solutions or ‘bin-hacks’ that can be equally as effective.”
Antony Buchan, head of programme at Resource London, said: “Managing recycling at home is something we all have to do every day, so it’s not surprising that the majority of London residents regularly experience clutter and mess around the bins in their home. But today we’re launching a campaign which shows some of the simple things that we can all do to get to grips with this.
“Having a dedicated recycling bin for inside the home is a great option, but there are plenty of simple, low cost solutions or ‘bin-hacks’ that can be equally as effective. We know Londoners are a creative lot, which is why our new ‘One bin is rubbish’ campaign is encouraging people to share their favourite bin-hacks so that every household can find the recycling solution that is right for them.”
Some of the top bin-hacks recommended as part of the research with London residents include:
- Keep a basket under the stairs or by the front door as a holding area for papers/magazines that are waiting to be moved to an outside recycling bin
- Use bags for life to store bottles for recycling, and hang them on the inside of a kitchen cupboard door or in the utility cupboards out of sight
- Get your kids to decorate a plastic or cardboard box to store all the recycling – this will make it look nicer and encourage them to use it too
- Store an old bucket under the sink to put your cans, glass and plastic in after you’ve rinsed them out
- Re-use cardboard wine carriers to store glass bottles neatly for recycling
This may come as welcome advice to the 40% of Londoners who are still recycling despite not having a recycling bin inside their home – who said that the worst aspect of this is having to take the recycling out a lot – and the 33% who said they ended up having to put things they wanted to recycle in the normal rubbish bin instead.
The campaign will launch across London and will continue until mid-March 2018. For more information visit www.recycleforlondon.com/onebinisrubbish
