London Assembly calls for more on-the-go recycling in capital
28 May 2009
The London Assembly has called for Mayor Boris Johnson to introduce more ‘on-the-go' recycling facilities across the capital in what it sees as the "next logical step" to help improve the city's low recycling performance.
Calls by the Assembly - which is an elected body which is part of the Greater London Authority and scrutinises the activities of the Mayor - come in the wake of what it claimed was heightened public support for recycling and a need to address streams such as mixed plastic.
A 37-page report published by the London Assembly's environment committee indicated that while the there were currently some on-street recycling provisions in the capital, the Mayor should do more to work with the private sector to encourage recycling, provide consistent signage throughout the city and cater for the recycling needs of the city's transport network.
Darren Johnson AM, deputy chair of the London Assembly environment committee, said: "While Londoners' facilities for recycling at home have improved greatly over recent years, it can be a real headache finding decent recycling facilities when you're out and about - whether on the Tube, out shopping or at a football match. The Mayor must take a lead in changing this."
Calls for London to tackle ‘on-the-go' recycling follow efforts by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to improve the provision of recycling facilities in public places, which included the publication of a good practice guide and involvement in a three-year campaign with soft drinks giant Coca-Cola to create ‘Recycling Zones' in areas such as Thorpe Park and Alton Towers (see letsrecycle.com story).
London
Focusing on the generally poor recycling performance of London, the Assembly report claims that "household collection is reasonably well established in London, so the next logical step is to target other places to collect people's recycling", especially due to the large number of commuters, tourists and office workers in the city.
The Assembly claims that increased on-the-go capacity could also help London boroughs respond to public pressure to improve recycling, improve street tidiness and also capitalise on the "economic viability of waste".
This would involve providing a similar recycling service for Londoners on-the-go as they experience at home and be delivered on a consistent footing across the capital through standard signage, such as colours and symbols used on bins.
Emphasis on consistency in London's on-the-go recycling provision echoes similar advice given by Defra and London Remade last year on how to introduce an effective on-street system (see letsrecycle.com story).
Transport
In addition to consistency and catering for public places as a whole, the Assembly claimed that the Mayor needed to cater for the 968,000 commuters who travelled into central London on an average working day using public transport.
The report claimed that despite barriers such as security and storage space, "there is significant potential to recycle on the transport network" by increasing the number of bins outside stations, installing simple compactors to save space and making use of empty train carriages at off peak times to store material.
Suggestions to provide recycling facilities for the transport system were extended in the report to include travel around the Olympic 2012 sites, with the Assembly calling for the Mayor to work with the Olympic organisers to ensure sponsors funded and helped deliver on-the-go recycling at venues for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
And, the Assembly also said that the Mayor should take advantage of partnerships with private sector companies, such as Coca-Cola, which have already shown an interest in increasing the number of on-the-go recycling zones as part of corporate responsibility programmes.
Barriers
Despite its encouragement for Mayor Johnson to provide services, the Assembly report also highlighted a number of barriers currently preventing public and private organisations from introducing on-the-go recycling services.
It claimed that collections could become costly with bins "likely to fill up rapidly without frequent collection", and also identified that there was a danger of material becoming contaminated as people could not clean material on-street before recycling it. The Assembly suggested a pan-London awareness campaign and clear signage to give a better indication of what can and cannot be recycled.
In addition, the report claimed that the price volatility in recovered material markets could prove problematic and, more importantly, that the lack of recycling infrastructure in London itself would present a barrier.
Focusing on mixed plastic in particular, the Assembly claimed that recycling the plastic stream was increasingly important due to widespread public confusion, with it being "one of the most visible remaining components of the waste bin". The Assembly therefore called on the London Waste and Recycling Board and the London Development Agency to investigate the viability of establishing a mixed plastics recycling facility in London.
The report represents the results of an investigation held between September 2008 and January 2009 and is hoped to influence the Mayor's forthcoming Municipal Waste Strategy, which is expected to be published for consultation in draft form by the end of this year.
The document was published after discussions with multi-national corporations, sporting venues, representatives of the transport network and industry bodies such as WRAP and Waste Watch, as well as survey responses from London residents.
Mayor
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A spokesperson for the Mayor said: "The Mayor agrees that street recycling is extremely important and wants to see more opportunities for Londoners to recycle their rubbish on the go. The Mayor doesn't have authority to install new recycling bins across London, as this is a borough responsibility, but is working closely with the boroughs to make it easier for Londoners to recycle."
"The Assembly report is a useful document and will help to inform the Mayor's draft waste strategy, to be published this summer, which will include proposals for working with the boroughs on more street level recycling facilities," he added.
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