A warning that London is facing a major waste crisis in the middle of the current decade came this week (February 1) from Isabel Dedring, environment advisor to the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson.

New technologies are not coming forward at the rate we would like

 
Isabel Dedring, Mayor's Office

Ms Dedring said: "In financial terms, with half of London's waste being landfilled, there could be a financial crisis. And, new technologies are not coming forward at the rate we would like."

Speaking at a lunch event in the Houses of Parliament held by the SITA Trust, Ms Dedring explained how progress was being made by the London Mayor on a number of fronts including tree planting, greening the city and on starting to prepare for climate change and adaptation.

However, she noted that more was needed to be done and said that while Londoners said they were recycling, "there is clearly a disconnect in London. People say they are recycling but when you look at the recycling rate, they are not." She added that "the recycling rate for flats is 10% which is remarkably low".

Commenting on the Mayor's recently published draft waste strategy for London, Ms Dedring explained that this proposed zero waste to landfill and a move to a CO2 outcome-based specification over the lifecycle of waste rather than the specifying of particular technologies.

Fragmentation

And, she noted that the draft had also focused on jobs and economic benefits of modern waste management and estimated that 1,000 or more jobs could be created.

Singling out specific difficulties facing London, Ms Dedring commented that there were difficulties because of the political differences and the structure of waste management in the capital: "Planning is still a massive issue for us and another big issue particularly is the fragmentation of waste authorities."

Turning to the London Waste and Recycling Board, the Mayor's Advisor said: "The Board needs to know where the gaps are. Projects are not coming forward at the pace which we would like to see, and particularly the banks are much more cautious. We are not having the support from the financial sector that we need - we can come into this with our financial support but we depend on private sector funding as well."

Waste collection

At the SITA Trust event, waste company SITA UK's chief executive David Palmer-Jones praised the Mayor's vision for London's waste as "truly visionary".

Referring to the Mayor and his team, Mr Palmer-Jones added: "Their ambition to make London the premier city in resource and climate change management has never been in doubt."

He continued: "For the first time in UK strategic planning, we have a truly integrated framework for the management of secondary materials and energy which crosses municipal and business waste boundaries and joins waste generators with users of outputs from treatment processes."

Mr Palmer-Jones also commented on the challenge of getting flats recycling increased as well as calling for more attention to be paid to the collection side of waste.

He remarked: "Make no mistake, the challenges in providing well-designed, cost-effective collection services especially for flats and multi-occupancy buildings, which form 50% of London's established housing stock, are enormous. But we have to deal with if we want to deliver the high recycling and recovery targets the Mayor wants London to achieve. SITA has consistently argued for waste collection to be given the serious consideration that is its due."