But act quickly as only eight available
Residents are being given the chance to embrace green-living by claiming one of eight free rainwater harvesters for their community garden, allotment or gardening club.
Wandsworth Council currently has a surplus of the harvesters – or water butts – after the town hall arranged for its old redundant recycling banks to be recycled into the useful rainwater collection containers.
This recycling initiative enabled the council to avoid potential landfill disposal fees for old banks, increase recycling and increase rainwater recycling – saving money by reducing the need for piped water.
Wandsworth’s partner in the initiative - Leafield Environmental – recovered nine tonnes of material by recycling the redundant banks.
Leafield subsequently produced 15 rainwater harvesters – the first of which was installed at Wandsworth Common Park in August 2011.
Others have already been allocated to the Doddington West estate’s community garden, the Ethelburga estate, Putney Vale Cemetery and to Eco Fund applicants setting up or developing community gardens.
The town hall is celebrating the success of the recycling project by offering the remaining eight recycled rainwater harvesters to the most worthy applicants.
The council’s cabinet member for environment, Councillor Jonathan Cook, said:
“Taking the old recycling banks and turning them into water butts is a perfect example of improving sustainability through increased recycling. If your community garden, allotment or school gardening club would like a water butt, email greenpledge@wandsworth.gov.uk.”
Anyone applying should be aware that a small element of DIY installation is required as they need to reside by a structure with a down-pipe to plumb into.
To boost recycling even further, the town hall is encouraging residents to home compost their garden and kitchen waste. The council has arranged with suppliers of garden shredders and compost bins for discounts to be given to homeowners and tenants in the borough to make composting more affordable.
For those who are not able or do not want to home-compost, Wandsworth has teamed up with a local firm to offer a significant discount on in-sink food waste disposers, which offer a clean and efficient way to dispose of food waste.
For more information about Wandsworth's waste and recycling services email wasteservices@wandsworth.gov.uk or call 020 8871 8558.
March 9, 2012
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