Residents First

Real nappies make sense

With almost eight million disposable nappies thrown away in Britain every day, parents of babies and toddlers are being encouraged to make the switch to real nappies. Doing so could save you up to £500, and the council offers a financial incentive to help new and expectant parents with the initial costs.

In support of Real Nappy Week, which is being held on April 19-22, Hammersmith & Fulham Council has organised a real nappies talk at the Masbro Centre, 87 Masbro Road, London W14 0LR on Thursday, April 19, at 11am. Everyone is welcome to attend, and speak to experts who will be on hand to show parents the best real nappies currently on the market, and offer useful information on how to get started.

Real nappies are a great alternative to disposal nappies. Not only are they much better for the environment, they are also much cheaper, and a lot easier to use than the terry cloths of last century. Research shows that using home-laundered real nappies rather than disposables could save parents approximately £500 for each child.

In households with one baby, disposable nappies make up 50 per cent of the weekly bin with each nappy potentially taking hundreds of years to decompose. Three billion disposable nappies are thrown away each year in the UK, most of them end up in landfill or in the case of Hammersmith and Fulham, being incinerated. However, in comparison, real nappies lead to less wastage – where a baby in disposables would need about 4,000 nappies, just 24 real nappies would do the same job, which can then be hung out to dry on the washing line.

Cllr Greg Smith, cabinet member for residents’ services, said:

“Residents are making great strides in reducing the amount of waste they throw away, but we need to remember that on average every borough resident throws away seven times their body weight in rubbish every year. Disposing of one ton of disposable nappies costs £136 so parents of babies and toddlers can make a real impact by using real nappies. This will save money and help H&F continue to cut council tax every year.”

In addition to the real nappy talk at the Masbro Centre, Hammersmith & Fulham Council hosts Nappy Natter sessions..The next three Nappy Natters will be on Fridays – April 27th, May 25th and June 29th, 2:15pm-4pm, at St Mary's Church Hall, Edith Road, Hammersmith, W14 9BA. To book a place, email realnappies@lbhf.gov.uk or call or 020 8753 4199.

Residents who attend a Nappy Natter are entitled to a free real nappy voucher worth £45. This can be used to purchase any real nappies and related accessories from the Washable Nappy Company.

If you can’t make the Nappy Natter, you can claim your voucher by emailing scanned copies of the documents above to realnappies@lbhf.gov.uk. The council will then send you a voucher code to use when you place an order online with the Washable Nappy Company.

Binman sets up charity

A Hammersmith & Fulham dustman who swapped his job in London for the same role in Indonesia has launched a charity to help the lives of the binmen and their families he met.

Wilbur Ramirez, a father of four from Cricklewood, featured on BBC 2’s Toughest Place To Be A Binman, where he took over the round of Imam Syaffi, a dustman who lived just yards from a rubbish dump in Jakarta.

Keeping the streets of the capital city proved to be a tough and thankless task and the terrible living and working conditions at times left Wilbur in tears. So humbled was he by his experiences that Wilbur set up the Ramirez Trust to help improve the lives of the Indonesian workers.

The charity was launched successfully at a benefit concert at the 100 Club in Oxford Street last Thursday.

Wilbur says: “When I was on the plane coming home I couldn't wait to see my wife and kids, but I also couldn't stop thinking about Imam and his family, who I was leaving behind. I knew I had to do something.”

Bin collections stay same for Easter

Bin collections in Hammersmith & Fulham will not change over the Easter holiday weekend.

Unlike many councils around the country, H&F is not changing the days that refuse and recycling is being collected on the bank holidays of Good Friday, April 6, and Monday April 9.

This means residents will not see any change to their service, and it will be business as usual.

Cllr Greg Smith, cabinet member for residents’ services, said:

“We are one of the few councils in the UK that is continuing to run weekly, and even twice weekly, collections. We do not believe that residents should be inconvenienced just because there is a bank holiday, and we will continue to provide a service on these days as normal.”

Residents can check their collection day by visiting www.lbhf.gov.uk/rubbish.

TV binman meets Mayor

London refuse collector Wilbur Ramirez has become something of a celebrity following his appearance in a BBC television documentary, where he swapped his normal round collecting rubbish and recycling in Hammersmith & Fulham for the mean streets of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.

Wilbur recently featured in a BBC2  series called Toughest Place to be a ... where it followed his time working as a binman with local street sweeper and dustman Imam, and living with Imam’s family just yards away from a huge rubbish tip. Imam works seven days a week, not only collecting rubbish, but also sweeping the front of houses and opening and clearing the storm drains, all in bare feet and without gloves.

Imam receives a tiny wage for the job – so meagre that it is not enough to support his wife, child and parents. So he works late into the night, every night, sorting recyclables like plastic bottles and tins from the rubbish pile to sell on for a little more cash. Most of the 3,000 people living near the tip in shacks must live off what they can scavenge.

Defending weekly bin collections

 

Cllr Harry Phibbs interviewed on Channel 4 News

Recycling scheme for flats

Recycling for residents who live in flats is set to become even easier!

Flats make up around 70 per cent of properties in Hammersmith & Fulham but the recycling rate from flats is estimated at just 10 per cent.

H&F Council is set to launch a brand new scheme to make it easier for flat dwellers to recycle using Smart Banks.

From this summer, all households with access to Smart Banks will be given a new re-usable bag to make it even easier to store recycling in your home and transport it to the recycling bank. Selected locations
will also benefit from other improvements including:

• Converting some refuse chutes so that they can be used for recycling - this approach trebled recycling rates on one estate in Westminster.
• Installing recycling banks on each floor.
• Providing extra Smart Banks where coverage is limited.

Why hasn't my Christmas tree been collected yet?

If the Christmas tree you left out on Wednesday night and it wasn't collected yet on your normal refuse day, it should be by tonight. If it hasn't please let us know.

Dave Newman, the Council's Head of Waste Management says:

As you can imagine, collecting thousands of trees during the days after Christmas represents quite a significant logistical operation for the council's contractor, Serco. Furthermore, owing to their size and the fact that we aim to compost as many trees as possible rather than landfilling them, Christmas trees are being collected by a different crew and vehicle to the ones responsible for colleting your normal weekly household refuse and recycling.

Although Serco has endeavoured to collect all trees presented on the same day as residents' usual refuse collections, owing to the popularity of the service, we regret that crews were not able to complete all collections by close of play in recent days.

We are taking the matter seriously however and are pleased to report that additional resources are being introduced by the contractor over the weekend to deal with the backlog.  The objective of this will be to ensure that all of those trees not collected on the normal refuse collection day, as planned, are removed by close of play on Sunday.

I apologise for any inconvenience experienced but hope the foregoing adequately explains the current position.