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Bin it! Council urge Charedim to recycle food waste
The Jewish Community Council said recycling was so low because the bins provided by Hackney were too small.
August 11, 2017 13:00
The Jewish Community Council said recycling was so low because the bins provided by Hackney were too small.
August 11, 2017 13:00Charedi families in Stamford Hill recycle far less food waste than other residents in the area, according to the local authority.
Hackney council said that while 33 per cent of the general population in the borough use their food bins, only 13 per cent of the Strictly Orthodox community do. To increase their use, the council is hiring staff to visit 500 Charedi homes to explain the benefits of a greener approach to food disposal.
In advert placed in the JC last week, Hackney said: “We are looking for a team of food waste recycling promoters to visit Charedi households in the Stamford Hill area over a period of one month starting in September 2017.”
The Jewish Community Council, a body that represents the Stamford Hill community in north east London, said recycling was so low because the bins provided by Hackney were too small.
Levi Shapiro, a JCC founder, said the organisation had been working with the council but the blue bins it provides “are not practical for [large] Charedi families.
“The bins are meant to collect a week’s worth of food waste but wouldn’t last a day in a Charedi household.”
Lucy Simler, recycling officer for Hackney, said Charedi families produced more waste because they “do a lot more cooking from scratch than most households, which is why we want to drive up the numbers of people who recycle”.
She added that the council was working on ways to make the practice easier for large families.
“There are always going to be people who don’t want to recycle food because they think it is messy, or the bin is not big enough” she said. “But we think, once it is easier for people, they will get on board with it like they have with general recycling.”
She said that the poor level of recycling was also down to the Strictly Orthodox community feeling that they do not have the time to sort through the relatively large amount of waste they produced.
The council is hoping the new team, who will be paid £12 an hour, “will help get the message across that, by recycling your food waste, your black bin ends up much cleaner.
Ms Simler said: “It is a halachic duty to recycle. If the bins were bigger, and the education and communication between the community and council were better, you would see more recycling of food waste.”
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