Hounslow residents have been asked to keep up their good recycling habits to cut costs, save money and create a cleaner greener borough.

A £3.8m investment to tackle waste, litter and improve recycling rates has been announced by Hounslow Council and includes a plan that aims to increase recycling rates in high-rise flats and roll-out a food waste service to 24,000 flats and schools by the end of the year.

The council has said current recycling rates are strong, thanks to the ongoing commitment of residents.

Over 17 million aluminum cans were collected in 2020/21 - enough to fill three and half Olympic swimming pools or 71 double-decker buses.

Hounslow Council is working to increase the borough's recycling rates from the current 35.4 per cent to 37 per cent by the end of 2022 with the ultimate aim to drive recycling rates up to 50 per cent of all waste produced in the borough.

To this end, the Council has made it even easier for residents to recycle their household waste and prevent it from going into the black bin. Residents are provided with a weekly recycling collection. Houses are provided with three recycling boxes; a red box to recycle plastic and metal cans, a blue box for card and paper and a green box for glass. A food waste caddy is also provided to recycle unavoidable food waste.

Textiles and small electrical items can be placed into tied carrier bag and placed next to recycling boxes for the recycling crews to collect. Residents in flats have a range of bulk recycling facilities available including plastic, cardboard, paper, tin/cans/aerosols, glass and food waste, and have been encouraged to use the Recycle Now tool to find out how to recycle items not collected by the Council eg. batteries, plastic bags and thin/flexible plastic.

The Council's Space Waye reuse and recycling centre in Feltham can also be used for recycling everything from wood to hard plastic to grass cuttings and more.

With the cost-of-living crisis at the top of the national agenda, the message from the Council's Waste and Recycling Team is a simple one: Let's not waste it.

Hounslow Council's Cabinet Member for the Environment, Highways and Operational Services, Cllr Guy Lambert, said: "We know that people in Hounslow have been doing some great work with their recycling and we want everyone to keep up this good work and recycle as much as they can.

"Material collected can be used in a number of ways to protect the environment and reduce waste. Food waste can be processed and used to make biogas or non-chemical fertiliser for the agricultural industry."

Cllr Lambert added: "All our plastics, cardboard, paper, metals and glass are sold to recycling companies, mainly in the UK, which not only gives us an income to offset what we need to collect in council tax, but also ensures what we collect has a real value and is really recycled rather than dumped somewhere. We know that people are feeling the pinch and the Council is here to help.

"At a time like this, we cannot afford to waste council taxpayers' money paying for waste to be incinerated, so please continue to recycle for Hounslow."

• For more information on recycling in Hounslow, click here.
• To find out more about what the Council does with your recycled material, click here.
• If you would like to order a recycling bin, click here.