And, unless boroughs introduce their new recycling schemes within the next 12 months, London is likely to miss its recycling target for 2005/06, according to Kate Radford, London Remade's supply infrastructure project manager.
Ms Radford was speaking at the 25th anniversary celebration of London-based social enterprise recycling organisation ECT last week. She said that initial indications were that the 2003/04 recycling rate for London was 13%, up two percentage points on the year before, but shy of the 17% target.
London needs to reach a household waste recycling rate of 25% by 2005/06 under targets set by the government. Ms Radford said: “We need to double our recycling tonnage to reach our targets for 2005/06.”
Ms Radford heads up London Remade's Supply Programme and Improvement Centre, and is responsible for projects that help London boroughs improve the efficiency of recycling and composting collections. She said 20 out of 32 boroughs now have kerbside recycling collections, 53% of these are weekly, which London Remade believes is the best method.
Delay
But, boroughs have been introducing their schemes part-way through the year, and this has meant they have given themselves insufficient time to reach the 2003/04 recycling targets, because recycling rates are worked out as an average of the whole year.
And if councils delay new schemes planned to reach 2005/06 targets, London could miss its next recycling targets as well, Ms Radford warned.
She said: “Introducing schemes half-way through the year will bring down the recycling average, as it is calculated across the whole year. This means councils really have only a year left to introduce their schemes, or we will miss the next target (2005/06).”
Ms Radford said estates recycling was a key measure that would increase the recycling rates in London boroughs, though recycling is not a priority for councils in areas with large numbers of estates. She said residents on estates may have serious issues in their lives, but that did not necessarily mean they were not keen to recycle.
Kitchen waste
And, London Remade's supply infrastructure project manager said kitchen waste would also be an important waste stream to boost recycling rates. “Kitchen waste is the highest percentage of waste in London – it makes up about 42% of the average household dustbin.”
The Organics West London project, run by ECT, has just received London Recycling Fund money to expand its initial 3,800 household trial for collecting kitchen waste at the kerbside to 100,000 households. The trial took place in the boroughs of Brent, Ealing, Hounslow and Richmond, collecting waste such as fruit and vegetable peelings, tea bags and coffee grounds.
Waste from the trial was taken to an in-vessel composting facility at a West London Waste Authority site in Park Royal. Ms Radford said 20% of households had participated in the trial.
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