The annual Recycling Week event is now in its fifth year. Organised by WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme), the aim of the week is to inspire people to recycle more.
Lewisham is holding a number of events throughout the week, to encourage people to get involved and think about how they can recycle more.
Recycling awareness
Lewisham Council’s Recycling Trailer will be at Lewisham Shopping Centre, giving advice and information to shoppers on the best ways to reduce, reuse and recycle. WRAPs Composting Advisor will be on hand to answer composting queries. For new or expectant parents, there will be information about using real nappies.
Date: Tuesday 3 June
Time: 11.00am to 3.00pm
Venue: Lewisham Shopping Centre (main entrance by the market)
Compost workshops
The last compost workshops were in such demand that another workshop is being held:
Date: Wednesday 4 June
Time: 5.00pm to 7.00pm
Venue: Civic Suite, Catford
Contact: Beth Sowden on 020 8314 2053 or email recycling@lewisham.gov.uk to register your interest in attending.
Swap your plastic carrier bags
Lewisham residents are being asked to collect up their old plastic bags and swap them for a cotton shopping bag during Recycling Week. It can take hundreds of years for a plastic carrier bag to degrade and residents are being asked to think twice before using them.
Lewisham Council will swap shoppers’ old plastic bags for a re-usable cotton bag. The person to swap the most carrier bags will win a prize from Marks & Spencer's or Sainsbury's. There will also be free face painting and arts and crafts workshops.
Date: Friday 6 June
Venue: Lewisham Town Centre (main entrance by the market)
Time: 11.00am to 4.30pm
Simply turn up with your old plastic bags.
As well as swapping old plastic carrier bags, shoppers can get information and advice from the Council’s recycling team, who will be on hand all day to answer questions and show people how easy it is now to recycle in Lewisham.
Elsewhere in the borough local arts group, Other World Arts, will be running workshops for primary school children at St Mary's Primary School showing them how to make pom-poms from old plastic carrier bags, which will all be recycled. Some of the children will be visiting the shopping centre during the day with their works of recycled art.
Other World Arts promote the 4 R’s
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Recreate. Using collections of surplus, reusable materials, Other World Arts create an atmosphere of fun and excitement, where children of all ages and abilities can learn via arts and crafts and raise their awareness of environmental issues.
Brockley Max children’s event
Origami competition for children using reused paper, as well as showing them how they can recycle more.
When: Saturday 8 June
Time: 11.00am to 4.00pm
Location: Hilly Fields
The Council is also working with a group of local artists, Artmongers, and primary school children to design new images for recycling bins in one locality in the borough.