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Recycling and rubbish

5 reasons to recycle your food waste

An astonishing 34% of waste collected in Bexley’s green bins for household rubbish is food waste that could be recycled. That’s nearly one third of rubbish going into the wrong bin!

  1. Recycling your food leaves more room in your green bin for non-recyclable household waste, means you avoid nasty smells that attract flys and it also won’t need to be cleaned as often.  Same for your indoor kitchen bin!
  2. It’s easy to do, free of charge and is collected weekly
  3. Good for the environment – Food waste is turned into energy and a nutrient rich biofertilizer that farmers use to grow crops. #GreenBexley
  4. Saves money by diverting food waste from being incinerated which helps keep your Council Tax lower
  5. You can get rewarded by earning Green Points. Each month, you could win one of the 15 x £20 vouchers awarded to the top points earners. Sign up today at bexley.localgreenpoints.com
Recycling food waste

Don't cause a bincident

Over the last year in Bexley there have been eight fires caused by batteries thrown into household bins for rubbish and recycling.

Vehicles and parts of the Council’s waste sites were damaged as a result of the fires and one lorry trailer had to be written off.

The fires also caused service delays as waste sites closed whilst they were dealt with. If the fire is in a lorry then all of the rubbish has to be tipped out of the vehicle wherever it is and then re-collected a second time. This leads to damage to road surfaces and traffic delays and costs everyone time and money unnecessarily.

Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods, Cllr Richard Diment said:

Please dispose of your old electrical items and batteries correctly, take them to a designated drop off point, don’t put them into household bins for rubbish and recycling.”

Residents can collect household batteries and take them to our two Reuse and Recycling Centres, council libraries, the Civic Offices, Bexleyheath and most large supermarkets where they have designated containers for recycling. 

Recycling poster about disposing of batteries safely

New A to Z recycling guide

Our new A to Z searchable guide aims to make it easy for everyone to recycle more. It doesn’t matter what the item is, you’ll find the best way to recycle it if you search online at A to Z of recycling.

Zero tolerance for rubbish offenders

We do not tolerate fly tipping and are introducing new deterrents and increasing our enforcement presence in public areas. From 1 July Fixed Penalty Notices has gone up from £400 to a maximum of £1,000.

Illegal dumping of rubbish around our recycling banks and on our streets is a criminal offence and can result in a £400 plus fine or criminal prosecution. If a recycling bank is full, do not throw your rubbish or recycling on the ground as this will be classed as fly-tipping. If you pay for a company to dispose of your waste and they are not licenced you could be liable for a £500 fine.

Fines up to £300 will also be issued to anyone caught littering or not clearing up after their dogs.

Drivers can also be fined £300 if they or their passengers are caught throwing litter out of their car window while driving.

Cllr Richard Diment, Bexley’s Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods said:

Keeping Bexley clean and green is a top priority for the Council and we’ve always been clear that we have zero tolerance of fly-tipping and littering and will not hesitate to come down hard on offenders.

We want Bexley to be a safer, greener place to live in and an attractive place for visitors and businesses to thrive.”

Example of rubbish that has been dumped

Keeping Bexley clean and green

We are replacing the Borough’s old litter bins with more modern ones and providing additional litter bins in places with high footfall and a high incidence of littering.

This will mean more bins in shopping areas, outside schools and park entrances and at the busiest bus stops in Bexley.

One of the new modern bins that we are installing has a separate recycling and general waste compartment. The Recycling compartment is for plastic bottles, pots, tubs, trays, metal cans or paper and cardboard and the general waste compartment is for everything that cannot be recycled like crisp packets and plastic bags. These bins will also improve the appearance of our public areas.

Providing more bins in our borough and investing in modern ones will make it easier to dispose of litter and increase recycling.

Cleaning up Bexleyheath Town Centre

We’re investing in new equipment, materials and the resources needed to remove chewing gum from the pavements in Bexleyheath town centre.  This follows our successful bid for funding from the Chewing Gum Task Force.  We will also be installing an extra 20 new litter bins on lampposts throughout the town in which residents can dispose of cigarette butts and chewing gum as well as general litter.

Cllr Diment with one of the new bins

Cllr Diment with one of the new bins

Service arrangements for the August Bank Holiday

Revised arrangements will be in place for rubbish and recycling collections until Monday 2 September.

More information and dates