• Kerbside Recycling
• Flat Recycling
• Bring Recycling
• Waste Minimisation
• Other Services
• Contact Information and Links

The service information presented for the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham was last updated in February 2009. Information was verified by borough contacts. The authors of this website are not responsible for any errors or omissions. Data relating to targets and performance is taken from Defra's Environment statistics.

Dry Recycling

Hammersmith & Fulham operate a "Smart Sack" orange bag recycling scheme which currently reaches approximately 50,000 households in the borough. Collections are made weekly using four vehicles serving 20 collection rounds. In common with household refuse collection, kerbside recycling collections take place one day late following Bank Holidays and at Christmas and New Year (when the amended collection days will be widely publicised). Residents are delivered a free roll of 30 orange sacks every 4 months for the co-mingled collection.  The following materials are accepted:

• aerosols
• cardboard
• drinks cartons
• glass bottles and jars
• mixed cans
• paper
• plastic bottles
• yellow pages

Following collection, the sacks of mixed recyclables are taken to a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) in Kent, where materials are mechanically sorted before being sold on into industry to be turned into new products. To download an information sheet about how the MRF works please click here. To download an information sheet with pictures about what happens to your recycling, click here

Additional rolls of sacks can be obtained by residents from nominated council distribution points across the borough including all six of the borough’s libraries and Hammersmith town hall reception, upon production of some form of ID that confirms residential status.

Compulsory Recycling

From 1st October 2007, it became compulsory for all Hammersmith & Fulham residents in street properties, north of the Goldhawk Road, to recycle using the orange Smart Sack service. Residents within the pilot area who persistently place their recyclables in black sacks for disposal instead of in orange Smart Sack for recycling may as a last resort be issued with a £100 fixed penalty. If successful, compulsory recycling will be implemented throughout the whole borough in 2009.

Organics

In 2008 Hammersmith & Fulham joined Recycle Now Home Composting Campaign and offered subsidised composting bins to residents. In 2009 the borough is planning to distribute approximately 3000 home composters free of charge. This will replace traditional garden waste collection. These changes were implemented after a major public consultation revealed that half of contacted residents were interested in composting and believed separate garden waste collection was unnecessary. Bigger quantities of garden waste, e.g. tree cuttings, can be collected by a bulk collection crew, for a small charge.

Dry Recycling

"Smart Banks" are now located in the vast majority of the borough’s estates and mansion style premises (approximately 29,000 households), which are intended solely for the use of residents. Both council and privately owned estates are served by the scheme.  The sites have been arranged in conjunction with the council’s Housing Management Organisation, local residents groups and in the case of private estates, the relevant management companies. The following materials are collected co-mingled:

• aerosols
• card
• drinks cartons
• glass bottles and jars
• mixed cans
• paper
• plastic bottles
• textiles (TRAID banks provided on some estates)
• yellow pages

Flats Above Shops

The borough of Hammersmith and Fulham has approximately 2,500 flats above shops.  These premises receive a weekly kerbside collection service of orange recycling sacks and heavy duty black refuse sacks (10% of households receive a twice weekly service), both of which are permanent services.  On street co-mingled recycling banks and bulky waste collections supplement this service (the bulky waste service is non chargeable for up to three items of unwanted household furniture or domestic appliances, or up to ten bags of miscellaneous effects).  Orange recycling sacks can be collected from all five libraries, Hammersmith Town Hall, South Fulham Housing Office, Bagleys Lane Depot, Bishop Creighton House, The Tennis Pavilion, Old Oak Community Centre, North Fulham Housing Office, South Fulham Housing Office.  Recycling and refuse sacks need to be put out before 6:30am on collection days.  They can be placed on the kerbside from 9pm the night before.

Household Reuse and Recycling Centre

There are no Reuse and Recycling Centres (RRC) in Hammersmith and Fulham. Residents can use Western Riverside Waste Authority's RRC's located in Wandsworth:

Western Riverside Reuse and Recycling Centre
Smugglers Way
Wandsworth
SW18 1JS

Cringle Dock Reuse and Recycling Centre
Cringle St
Battersea
SW8 5BX

Click here for a list of materials accepted at the RRCs.

Bring Banks

The borough has a network of 45 recycling bring sites located on public highways. The following materials are collected in co-mingled “Smart Banks” (mainly 1280 litre euro bins):

• aerosols
• books (at Sainsbury’s supermarket Townmead Road, SW6)
• cardboard
• drinks cartons
• glass bottles and jars
• mixed cans
• plastic bottles
• textiles
• toner cartridges

Home Composting

The Council promotes home composting to residents and in partnership with WRAP during 2008/09 will continue to be supplying composters at a subsidised price. Composters cost £17 (220L compost converter), £20 (330 litre compost converter), £40 (KOMP 250L) and £4 (kitchen caddy). Additionally 3,000 home composters will be supplied to residents in 2009 free of charge.

Nappy Waste

To help reduce the amount of Nappy waste created in Hammersmith & Fulham, the council supports and promotes the use of “real” reusable nappies in preference to disposables and is running “Nappucino” sessions as a means of introducing new mothers to the concept. A new “real” nappy subsidy of £45 is available from the council.  For more information visit the council’s website. Alternatively, please contact the Council’s real Nappy Coordinator on 020 8753 3352.

Real Nappies for London is a new London-wide scheme to provide parents with an opportunity to try real nappies.  Hammersmith and Fulham council has joined Real Nappies for London and if you have a child under the age of 18 months, you could be entitled to claim an information pack and voucher.  For more information please visit: http://www.realnappiesforlondon.org.uk/index.php

Junk Mail Reduction

A Junk Mail campaign is running, across the Western Riverside Waste Authority area, by the Recycle Western Riverside campaign, promoting five simple steps that residents can follow to reduce the amount of junk mail they receive. For more information visit: Recycle Western Riverside's junk mail web pages.

Bulky Waste Collection

The authority collects unwanted furniture and other items of bulky household waste free of charge (up to three items or up to 10 sacks of miscellaneous waste) upon request. These types of collections must be booked in advance. In order to minimise inconvenience every effort is made to take unwanted items at the same time as general household waste. The council also operates a separate service to collect all household white goods such as cookers and washing machines and fridges free of charge. These also have to be booked in advance. Fridges from business premises may be collected for a fee.

Alternatively, any unwanted furniture can be donated to Furnish a charity that will collect and forward second hand furniture, to equip refuge housing, shelters and temporary housing. Call 020 8969 3332 for more information. (NB Furnish charges a £10 fee for collections)

Battery Recycling

Battery recycling tubs have been installed in 14 locations, including two Civic Centres, all 6 libraries, Hammersmith Information Centre and 3 Housing Offices. The tubes can now accept both single use batteries (dry cell batteries; button batteries - watch and calculator batteries, and domestic household batteries and rechargeable batteries (i.e: Nickel cadmium (NiCd), Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) and lithium batteries). Lead acid batteries – industrial, used in motor vehicles and computer back- up batteries are not accepted.

Batteries deposited in the tubes are collected by recycling staff and taken to Smuggler’s Way in Wandsworth.  From here, they are collected and recycled by Vinton Metals Ltd. Please see their website for more information: http://www.vintonbatteries.co.uk/profile.shtml 

Litter

There are 19 commuter bins located outside all of the borough’s tube stations for the collection of unwanted commuter (and other) news papers.

Commercial Recycling

The council operates commercial waste and recycling collections. 365 businesses are served by a trade recycling collection. The frequency of collection varies depending on the type of businesses. There is a 20% discount offered to businesses that chose to recycle their waste rather than simply having it collected as waste for disposal and the range of co-mingled materials collected for recycling is identical to that collected from households via the Smart Sack scheme. Businesses may chose to recycle via special “Trade Specific” orange sacks or by opting for “smart bank” type containers.

Find out more about recycling in your area Visit Recycle for London
Compare Hammersmith and Fulham's recycling services with the rest of London	View the Borough Service Summary Table
Find out more about the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham

Contact Hammersmith and Fulham Address: Environment Services Department 25 Bagleys Lane Fulham London SW6 2QA   The Cleaner & Greener Hotline: 020 8753 1100 (Monday to Friday 8am to 8pm)   Email: cleaner.greener@lbhf.gov.uk

Click here to view the summary report on the state of the environment in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham prepared by the Environment Agency.