Mayor of London Boris Johnson has today (July 30) unveiled plans to introduce a number of pilot schemes for the rewards-based recycling incentive scheme RecycleBank across the capital over the next two years.

The environment programme outlines ways that London can improve its long-term enviromental performance

Announced in the Mayor's environmental programme, entitled, ‘Leading to a Greener London', he states that the Greater London Authority (GLA) is "working actively" with London boroughs to implement the American incentive scheme in 2010 and plans to cover approximately 20,000 homes per London borough per pilot.

The document also claims that the typical financial benefit for any household under the scheme would be £14 a month, if they recycle an additional 100-200 kg each year to their current recycling levels. The rewards would take the form of either discount vouchers for participating stores, cash, donations to charity or Council Tax rebates based on how much additional waste participants recycle each month.

Mayor Johnson said: "We are working actively with interested boroughs to develop a number of RecycleBank pilots in 2010, covering approximately 20,000 homes per borough. RecycleBank is a scheme that delivers a sustained increase in recycled municipal waste by giving households more incentive to recycle."

RecycleBank

The London Mayor has been a longstanding advocate of adopting the RecycleBank system in the capital and the announcement of his plans come one-week after it was revealed that half of the eligible residents had signed up for the first UK trial of the system in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, which was launched in June (see letsrecycle.com story).

The RecycleBank scheme has been widely praised by the Conservatives with leader David Cameron, shadow chancellor George Osborne and, most recently, shadow environment secretary Nick Herbert advocating it as a means of offering an incentive for householders to recycle (see letsrecycle.com story).

However, the Conservative-led council Westminster, which was seen as one area within the capital touted as a possible trial area, claimed in March that it would not be looking to adopt the system (see letsrecycle.com story).

Within the 66-page document, the Mayor also explains a number of other methods by which he would look to incentivise recycling in the capital by working with the major companies and official sponsors of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, "revitalising" the Recycle For London advertising campaign and rolling out more on-the-go recycling services.

Plans

Also within the document, the Mayor outlines plans to have London's first anaerobic digestion (AD) facility in place "as soon as possible". Proposals for a 30,000 tonnes-a-year capacity plant would come as part of a longer term goal to have two million tonnes of waste treatment capacity in place by 2020.

Plans to review the most cost-effective recycling collection scheme, investigate cross-boundary material contracts and develop a number of revenue-sharing recycling contracts between London boroughs and local industry are also included in the wide-ranging document that looks at the whole spectrum of environmental issues faced by the capital.

In the foreword to the document, Mayor Johnson states: "London's recycling rate is still low compared to many cities, and this is a huge missed economic opportunity for the city. Many Londoners want to recycle more and we need to help them do that."

"Together with the boroughs, we will use the London Waste and Recycling Board's £84 million fund to create new waste facilities and put London on the path to a future where the economic value in waste is exploited for London's benefit, producing energy and bringing economic benefit to London," he added.