Texts to remind Londoners when to recycle

More than a quarter of Londoners have admitted they do not know what day their local council collects their recycling from the doorstep, despite the fact the city now has almost blanket coverage.


London Mayor Ken Livingstone has announced a new scheme allowing people in the capital to find out when their recyclables will be picked up and what exactly their borough will recycle.

“We’re getting much better at recycling more of our rubbish, particularly as services across the boroughs are improving,” he said.

“However, London households still produce enough rubbish to fill an Olympic sized swimming pool every hour, which is why the latest Recycle for London advertising campaign is introducing this pioneering new service to make it even easier to recycle.

“With so many of us relying on our mobiles, the new text service is a quick and easy way to make sure you’re putting the right things out for recycling, on the right day, or taking them to the right place.”

Londoners wanting to get details of recycling services in their area simply need to text the word recycle and their full postcode to 63131.

While people could already find information on recycling by calling their local council, browsing the internet or even asking a neighbour, the Mayor’s office believes the text service will appeal to those who prefer communicating through their mobile phones.

A spokesperson for the Mayor told edie: “Many people get up to date information about news, sport and entertainment sent to their mobile phones and this service is targeting those people who will find it easier to get information about recycling through this medium.

“Our research shows that our target audience of medium recyclers are recycling, but they could actually be recycling more materials, not just paper and glass and more often.

“This is another way of letting Londoners know what materials they can recycle, as 60 per cent of the average bin could be recycled.”

By Sam Bond

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