Islington Council won a Highly Commended award and finished runner-up in the Best Local Authority Initiative category at the National Recycling Awards, held in Bournemouth on 15 November 2006.
The award was for the council's innovative scheme to collect recycling from flats above shops. The vast majority of Islington's population live in flats properties, many of these above shops with no room on the pavement for green recycling boxes.
So a concerted effort was made to extend the recycling service enjoyed by the rest of the borough's 180,000 residents. Clear plastic recycling bags bearing the council's logo are used to collect recyclables while black sacks are used for household rubbish destined for disposal.
Cllr Lucy Watt, Executive Member for Environment, Islington Council said: "Previously these flats had not enjoyed the recycling collections available to other borough homes. Residents had to make the effort to take their recycling to bottle and paper banks - or worse still throw it away with their rubbish.
With flats making up 79 per cent of Islington properties and about 2,500 of these being flats located above shops with no options for storing recyclables, the council decided a tailor made scheme was needed."
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Page Last Updated: 29 July 2008