EAST Enders are being encouraged to recycle more this year as Tower Hamlets council launches a new campaign.

Following on from the ‘We can recycle more’ campaign in 2008 which helped recycling levels more than double, the new campaign focuses on informing people about the materials that can be recycled.

Funded through the council’s waste collection contractors Veolia will see advertising, educational activities, events and door knocking.

East Enders will see advertising on the recycling collection vehicles, park banners, lamppost banners and many other outdoor sites over the next few months.

The adverts will feature paper, card, tins, glass, cartons and aerosols, all of which can be recycled in pink bags and purple bins.

Tower Hamlets’ deputy mayor Cllr Ohid Ahmed said: “Being an inner London borough means that we cannot rely on garden waste to boost our recycling figures. We need to make sure that we recycle everything we can in order to send less waste to landfill.”

As well as encouraging residents to recycle more, the campaign will help to prevent the wrong materials being collected in pink recycling sacks and purple bins.

Food waste is the worst culprit for damaging recycling, along with clothing and textiles which can damage sorting machinery.

Items that cannot be recycled through kerbside collections can be taken to Northumberland Wharf Reuse and Recycling Centre in Yabsley Street.

Aluminum foil, books, clothes, computer monitors, cooking oil, engine oil, fluorescent tubes, furniture, green garden waste, household batteries, low energy light bulbs, paint, scrap metal, shoes, small electrical items, televisions, white goods, wood and timber can all be recycled there.

More information is available at www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/recycling