Who are we?

The Reduce and Recycle Hub is a community-driven project in Acton, W3,  born from a passion to tackle waste reduction at a local level.  The team is led by Action West London and run by a range of residents, volunteers, and local organisations working together to make a real difference in how our community consumes and disposes of goods. Our vision is a greener, more waste-free future for Acton, where reducing waste, reusing items, and responsible recycling are second nature.

How did our project start?

We started in October 2022, when local charity Action West London won funding from the National Lottery's Climate Action Fund to start a waste reduction project in Acton. When this funding ended, we secured six-month funding from Ealing Council to continue our work until March 2025.

What do we do?

Since October 2022 have held free monthly Reduce and Recycle events, in Acton, W3.  They are held on the first Saturday of each month, from 10 am to 3 pm, alongside the Acton Saturday Market or inside St Mary’s Church, Acton (depending on the weather).   

Our Reduce and Recycle events are vibrant community events where residents can take part in and learn about reducing waste, the circular economy, and connect with local organisations dedicated to environmental causes.

We bring together a diverse range of partners, from clothing recyclers like Traid to electronics recycling programmes, Terracycle collection for hard-to-recycle items, and local repair cafes for clothing, textile and electrical repair.  We offer clothing and shoe collection, small appliance recycling, and collection points for specific Terracycle items. 

There are stalls with advice on recycling, textile upcycling workshops, and local businesses offering repair services, sharpening services, and refurbished bicycles.

At each event, we offer Acton Residents the chance to interact with local climate action projects and groups. They can participate in activities ranging from seed swaps to learning about cycle hubs to Tiny Forest programmes and even learning more about buying reusable nappies and personal hygiene products.

We regularly ask residents to give us feedback, make green promises and tell us how they reduce, reuse and recycle.

The impact of our hubs is significant, we are more than just a monthly recycling point.

How have we made a difference?

We've saved hundreds of kilograms of clothing,  shoes and small electrical items for recycling, and significantly reduced carbon emissions. We've facilitated, clothes swaps,  book swaps, mended clothes, sharpened tools, and even given away upcycled items, all contributing to a culture of reuse and repair.

Over the past two and a half years, we've welcomed thousands of visitors, not only from Acton and our neighbouring boroughs but also from further afield in London, from Hackney to Finsbury to Merton.  People have travelled to visit us because we are the only people doing what we do! 

Since October 2022, we have collected over 700kg of clothing (equivalent to the weight of 19 Ealing beavers!), over 186kg of small electricals, and swapped over 500 books, saving trees and reducing waste. 

We also promote clothes repair and upcycling to ensure clothes are used for longer. Over 100 pieces of clothing and textiles, from trousers to bags to zips, have been repaired. 

Seasonally, we run clothing swaps for school uniforms and fancy dress costumes, such as for Halloween, Christmas Jumpers and World Book Day, helping families save money and reduce textile waste. These swaps also make people question the amount of clothing waste we produce and so change behaviours. People are inspired by our swaps and across the Ealing borough are setting up their own school or street swaps or travel to get to ours. We also run winter clothing drives for donations to local homeless and refugee charities.  In partnership with St Marys we collect unwanted food items for Ealing Foodbank. 

We're not just collecting items; we're changing habits. 

We're empowering our community to make conscious choices about consumption and waste, fostering a sense of collective responsibility for our environment, and building a stronger, more waste-free community, one event at a time. In addition to the hubs, the core team goes out into the community, runs pop-up hubs at other local community events and universities, and regularly presents the concept of reduce-and-recycle hubs at local and national workplaces.

Our efforts have been recognised with several awards, including the BBC London Make a Difference Green Award in 2024, the West London Business Awards Community Investment Award in 2024, and the AWL’s Environmental Sustainability Award at the Dangoor Awards in 2024. We were also featured on BBC London, highlighting the impact of our work.

You can watch the film at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/cj4xdjvxk4eo

We thought you would like to hear from some of our residents and volunteers on how we have impacted them!

"The hub has enabled us to have numerous face-to-face conversations about environmental issues with members of the public and has been particularly beneficial in recruiting new members for our group. It has also been helpful for networking between ourselves and the other organisations present," Daniel, Friends of the Earth Ealing.

"I learned some very worthwhile information about what I could recycle and I brought small electricals and books to the Hub to be recycled. The Reduce and Recycle Hub team were both very efficient and helpful," Mavis, Local Resident.

"I have used the sharpening service for all my scissors, and I have planted seeds from Cultivate to attract pollinators in our communal gardens. I have started a ‘house book swap’ so we can share and pass books around amongst the flats in the house. I have started recycling more of the non-standard things (toothbrushes) rather than driving to the tip; with small electricals, I bring them to the hub via public transport," Sarah, Local Resident.

"I have become more aware of how items can be reused, items which before I wasn't sure if they could be fixed and so would have discarded them," Dave, Local Resident.

"I got better informed about recycling & reusing things; about similar services and organisations that encouraged people to be more aware of the amount of things we send to landfill; also got a bit more confident with hand stitching and clothes mending; got info about doing maintenance for my bicycle myself," Clive, Local Resident.

What's next for us?

To achieve our ongoing vision of a greener, more waste-free future for Acton, where reducing waste, reusing items, and responsible recycling are second nature in Acton, this funding is essential.  We have achieved so much already, becoming the award-winning hub where residents depend on us to recycle and repair their items. If we are no longer here, they are less likely to make the effort to continue this and this funding will help us to continue all this good work. Plus, we still have more people to reach out to to create the ultimate aim of a zero-waste Acton. we need continued support.  Sadly without further funding, our events will end in March 2025

How will new funding allow us to continue, and what will we do with it?

The new funding will allow us to continue running our monthly hubs after March 2025. It will allow us to expand our educational programmes and workshops, increase the number of pop-up events and community outreach around Acton and into Ealing, and touch the lives of even more residents. We want to increase the range of items we collect for recycling, offer more repair workshops for textiles and electricals, and develop new initiatives to promote waste-free living, such as pop-up refill stations for household and personal use cleaning products.  Ultimately we want to maintain this regular event each month so that it continues to offer the local community a place to come, recycle, reuse and learn!

We want to increase the range of items we collect for repair and recycling and offer more repair workshops for textiles and electricals. We want to develop new initiatives to promote waste-free living, such as pop-up refill stations for household and personal use cleaning products.  Ultimately, we want to maintain this as a regular event each month so that it continues to offer the local community a place to come, recycle, reuse and learn!

Ultimately, we want to create a lasting legacy of waste reduction, creating a zero-waste Acton area. This will ensure a healthier planet for future generations and an engaged community that is zero waste-conscious.   After March 2025, we won’t be able to continue this valuable work unless we get more funding