The company has won a large contract to collect recyclables in East London in the London Borough of Waltham Forest. Full details are expected soon and the contract is likely to start with a service to 45,000 households.
Closer to its home base of Ealing, ECT has won a contract from Richmond upon Thames London Borough council to collect from
7,500 residents in Whitton and Twickenham.
ECT Recycling is the largest not-for-profit, community owned, recycling organisation in the UK and its work in Richmond follows on from a pilot doorstep recycling service in the borough during 1999/2000, when more than 400 tonnes of material were recycled rather than going to landfill sites.
Under the scheme residents who would like to recycle from home can put their glass bottles, tin cans, paper, aluminium foil, textiles and shoes into a ‘black box’, which is collected by ECT Recycling at the kerbside every two weeks. Flats are currently excluded from the project although the council says it hopes the service will be extended to include residents living in flats in the future.
Richmond will pay ECT for every tonne of material collected. It will receive the materials at it own recycling sites in the borough and will take any money from selling them. 
Richmond already runs successful recycling initiatives in its area and in the past financial year recycled 1,316 tonnes of materials collected from its recycling sites and from the kerbside collection of newspapers and magazines.
pictured left: Glass, paper and cans will be collected via a green box collection system for handsorting at the kerbside.
Rhona Coulter, recycling operations director of ECT Recycling, says: “We are very excited to have the opportunity to continue to work in partnership with Richmond upon Thames Council and its residents, providing them with a service which will help to build on their existing excellent recycling reputation”.
Councillor Jill Miller, the Council’s recycling spokesperson, said: “Last year our residents recycled 1,3164 tonnes of materials and this scheme will make it much easier for residents in Twickenham and Whitton to do even more. The Government has given us a tough target of recycling 28% of our waste by 2003/4, and we will be looking to expand this doorstep scheme right across the borough when funds allow.”
From the mid 90’s ECT has won an increasing number of contracts from local councils including: LB Ealing, LB Hounslow, LB Brent, LB Lambeth, Vale of White Horse, LB Lewisham and West Oxfordshire. It holds supply contracts with Aylesford Newsprint, British Glass Recycling, AMG Resources and Holmen Paper.
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