Beatriz Is Merton's Top Recycler

---

Cash prizes up for grabs in recycling campaign

Wimbledon resident Beatriz Garcia-Martinez is the first winner of Merton Mega Recycle's top prize of £250.

Ten other residents around the borough have also been awarded with £100 each as part of the first round of rewards through the Mega Recycle scheme. More than 3,300 people have already signed up to the scheme.

To be in with a chance to win a prize, all residents need to do is sign up on the Merton Mega Recycle website and get recycling. Everyone who signs up will be entered into the draw every month. Eleven households are randomly selected each month: one will win £250 and the other ten will win £100.

Residents living on estates are also in with a chance of winning cash for the whole estate. The more an estate recycles, the more likely they are to win up to £10,000. The same goes for people living in blocks of flats. The blocks which increase their recycling by the largest percentage can win up to £3,000 to spend on things to benefit their block such as a new carpet or plants for communal areas.

When residents sign the pledge on the website, they also have an opportunity to nominate a primary school for a cash prize.

There is no need to sort your recycling – residents just need to put it all in their green or purple box or communal bin. The council is also encouraging people to recycle their food waste too, which it collects the same day as the recycling and black sack landfill waste.

Merton Council cabinet member for street cleanliness and parking Councillor Judy Saunders said: "Congratulations to the first set of reward winners! I'm really pleased by how many residents have signed up to this fantastic scheme so far and we want as many people as possible to recycle as much as they can. It's great that everyone signing up to our Merton Mega Recycle pledge is in with an opportunity to win some decent cash prizes. Increasing the amount we all recycle is also good news for the public purse too, as sending rubbish to landfill costs twice as much as recycling.

"At the moment, residents recycle 39% of their rubbish, but this could be so much higher. If we all recycled everything we could, we would save £1.5m per year. Recycling is also great for the environment, cutting the amount of climate changing gases. It takes 95% less energy to make a recycled aluminium can that it does to produce it from the raw materials. Let’s all get recycling and do what’s best for us and the environment."

The council will be updating its leader boards every month so everyone can track their progress.

June 11, 2014