The service information presented for the London Borough of Southwark was last updated in September 2008. 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

57,760 households are served by a weekly collection of dry recyclables. Different materials are placed in either a reusable blue bag or a blue plastic box with dividers and sorted into three streams (paper and cardboard, glass and mixed cans and plastic) on the collection vehicle at the kerbside.  Fixed penalty notices are used to enforce recycling. The following materials are collected:

• aerosols (blue box)
• aluminium foil (blue box)
• cardboard (blue bag)
• glass bottles and jars (blue box)
• mixed cans (blue box)
• mixed plastics (includes bottles, food trays, margarine tubs and yoghurt pots etc in the blue box)
• paper (blue bag)
• yellow pages (blue bag)

Organics

Southwark operates a year round, fortnightly green garden waste collection from the doorsteps of 50,720 homes in Southwark. This service is provided to homes that have gardens and are on a street that can be easily accessed by the refuse collection vehicles. Residents can use single-use biodegradable paper bags, reusable jute bag or a brown wheeled bin.

Dry Recycling

59,359 flat households are served by bring recycling facilities, these are located at 712 sites on private estates.  Bring sites are located either in areas that receive the heaviest footfall or in the existing refuse store.  Bin sizes are tailored to individual estates with 240, 330, 660 or 1100 litre bins available.  The following materials are collected in seperate bins:

• aerosols
• aluminium foil
• cardboard
• glass bottles and jars
• mixed cans
• paper
• plastic bottles 
• yellow pages

These are collected by Kerbsider vehicles or Refuse Collection Vehicles (RCV).

40,075 flat households are served by a weekly door-to-door recycling collection service. Residents are provided with clear plastic bags for the co-mingled (mixed together) collection of:

• aerosols
• aluminium foil
• cardboard
• glass bottles and jars
• mixed cans
• paper
• plastic bottles
• yellow pages

The materials are collected by Refuse Collection Vehicles (RCV).

Flats Above Shops

Southwark is currently running a trial kerbside recycling collection to 30 flats on a trial street and 68 volunteer flats. Residents are provided with clear plastic bags for the co-mingled (mixed together) collection of:

• aerosols
• aluminium foil
• cardboard
• glass bottles and jars
• mixed cans
• paper
• plastic bottles
• yellow pages

Recycling is collected weekly and should be set out next to a local litter bin by 7am on collection day.

Household Reuse and Reycling Centre

There is one Reuse and Recycling Centre (RRC) in Southwark:  
Manor Place Depot
Manor Place (off Walworth Road)
London
SE17 3BD

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

Bring Banks

There are 300 street based recycling bring sites in Southwark collecting:

• aerosols
• aluminium foil
• cardboard
• glass bottles and jars
• mixed cans
• paper
• plastic bottles
• shoes (20 sites)
• textiles (20 sites)

Materials are collected separately in 1100 litre Eurobins.

Household Battery Recycling

Battery recycling tubes are located at all 12 libraries across the borough, Southwark Town Hall and the Manor Place HWRRC. These tubes can accept all kinds of batteries, such as standard, rechargeable, mobile and laptop batteries.

Home Composting

Southwark have been offering subsidised compost bins since April 2003 and wormeries were introduced in March 2006. Currently, residents can order a compost bin or wormery kit for £10 with a £5 delivery charge.  The compost bins are 325 litres in capacity, flat packed and are easy to assemble.  The wormeries are a two level wooden design.  To date over 4,255 composters and 697 wormeries have been distributed. Residents can order either kit from CRISP (Community Recycling in Southwark Partnership) by sending a cheque made payable to Elephant Jobs, together with your name, address, phone number and email address to:

CRISP
Unit 7-9
Brandon Street
London SE17 1NA

There are 7 community composting sites on estates; these are run in partnership with CRISP.

Nappy Waste

Southwark Council offers a subsidy of up to £40 to help parents get started with real nappies. Residents can either get money back when they purchase their own nappies to wash at home or receive a discount on selected nappy laundry services if they sign up for a two month period.

Southwark is part of Real Nappies for London, a new London-wide scheme to provide parents with an opportunity to try real nappies. For more information please visit: http://www.realnappiesforlondon.org.uk/index.php

Junk Mail Reduction

Southwark encourages residents to register with the Mailing Preference Service (MPS) to reduce the amount of unwanted mail they receive.

For more information visit: www.mpsonline.org.uk

Southwark Council started a "Stop Junk Mail" campaign in February 2006 to help households reduce the amount of junk mail they receive. A pack has been produced that includes a "No Junk Mail" sticker.

Waste Exchange

Southwark has set up a website for residents to exchange unwanted items from their home, business or community group that they no longer want. For more information visit http://www.swapxchangesouthwark.org/.

Southwark also holds "give and take" days, which give residents the chance to bring unwanted items, which might otherwise have been thrown away, to be taken away and used by others.

Material aware shopping

Southwark council promotes green shopping and has distributed 5000 reusable ‘smart shop’ bags to date.  Southwark have also produced green pledge bookmarks that promote and encourage green shopping and waste minimisation.

Bulky Waste Collection

Southwark provide a bulky waste collection free of charge to residents for up to 15 items, one collection per resident, per month.

Litter

Recycling bins for the collection of paper, mixed cans and plastic bottles are located at rail and underground stations.

Schools Recycling

95% of schools in the borough are provided with recycling facilities.

Furniture (domestic)

Southwark works with the MORPH Outlet in Camberwell, formerly Shaftesbury Resources, which will accept domestic furniture that is in good condition and suitable for reuse.  For more information call 020 7737 7475. The store is located at:

93 Camberwell Station Road
Camberwell
SE5 9JJ

Furniture (Office)

CRISP (Community Recycling in Southwark Partnership) accept all office furniture, such as desks, bookshelves and chairs as part of their OFFERS project. For more information call 020 7703 5222. Crisp is located at:

Unit 7-9
Brandon Street
London
Walworth
SE17 1NA

Residual Waste

Residual waste is collected from households with a minimum frequency of weekly. Kerbside households are provided with wheelie bins and some estate households are provided with bags.  Some communal sites have Eurobins.

Find out more about recycling in your area Visit Recycle for London
Compare Southwark's recycling services with the rest of London	View the London Matrix
Find out more about the London Borough of Southwark

Contact Southwark Address: London Borough of Southwark Manor Place Depot 30 to 34 Penrose Street London SE17 3DW   Tel: 020 7525 2000 Email: environment@southwark.gov.uk