Eco Hub • Lets Talk Rubbish

There was a pleasant hubbub as I arrived at the Meeting House for Eco Hub on 6th September. A new layout of the rooms meant that the children’s activities were now brought into the small hall and, as always, this summer, the door to the garden was wide open for people to overflow outside.

This month’s talk was on recycling. Our speakers were Grace and Carolina, employees of Suez, a utility and environmental services company specialising in water management and waste management. Their remit was to explain the task that Suez faces in terms of waste management and recycling. But they were also there to answer questions about the practicalities of domestic recycling. Part of Suez’s work includes educating the public onhow to recycle.

Suez, which grew from small beginnings in the early 1990s, is now a very big company with many clients across the UK. Its official vision is

And the company’s core belief is

I find it very satisfying to know that a large company like Suez can state these mission statements as its guiding lights.

In Surrey there are 14 Suez recycling centres and five re-use/revive shops across the county. The shops can be found at the following recycling centres.

• Leatherhead
• Earlswood
• Shepperton
• Witley
• Woking

The shops collect:

• furniture
• bikes
• crockery
• tools
• garden furniture
• ornaments
• CDs
• DVDs
• sports equipment
• TVs
• computer screens
• lamps

Did you know

One more thing, though – did you know that the government introduced a streamlining law called Simpler Recycling?

This insists that every local authority ensures that it is collecting the following: food and garden waste, residual (black bin) waste, card and paper and glass, and metal and plastic, including cartons. This came into effect in June this year. We’ve been lucky in Mole Valley as most of those collections have been taking place for several years.

Event photos

Author: Sarah Freeman,
The talks took place in September 2026