Ealing backs community-based incentive scheme

The London borough of Ealing is set to roll out a scheme offering a £80,000 financial reward to the four wards which achieve the greatest increase household recycling participation rates by June 2011.

The proposals, which were approved by the council's cabinet this month (September 14), would see the ward with the highest proportion of households recycling, along with the three achieving the greatest improvement in recycling rates, awarded £20,000 each.

Initially conceived as a nine-month pilot scheme, the scheme, which the council claims is the first of its kind in the capital, will see the west London borough's 23 wards vying to win the funding to use on community projects in their particular ward

According to cabinet minutes, delivery of the scheme is set to cost the council a total of £110,000, with £30,000 being released in 2010/11 from the Ealing Civic Improvement Fund for communication and coordination and the £80,000 reward to be added to the ward budgets of the four wards in 2011/12.

Delivery of the incentive scheme pilot coincides with a £2.5 million plan agreed by the council in November 2009 to enhance the existing waste and recycling service, which improves plans to tackle flats recycling, increase household participation rates and introduce food waste caddies.

Councillor Bassam Mahfouz, cabinet member for transport and environment, said: “We're really excited about this scheme, which is the first of its kind in London. It's crucial that we drive up recycling rates and send less waste to landfill. As a borough we already recycle around 40% of waste but we need to even more.

“It's vital to the environment and will also save the council money by stopping us from paying increasing fees to send rubbish to landfill. We want our communities to work with us to help reduce these costs, so it's only right to reward our residents for helping us to do this.”

Survey

The council will use methodology set out by the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) to carry out a baseline participation survey in Ealing's wards. This method will also be used to assess which ward has achieved the greatest increase in its participation.

And, Ealing is hopeful that, by adding a further 3,000 households – around 130 households per ward – to its recycling collections, it could divert an additional 1,240 tonnes of waste from landfill each year, which would make the scheme cost neutral.

At current participation rates, which involved around 48,450 households participating recycling in March 2010, the kerbside recycling service – excluding the green waste – diverts around 20,120 tonnes per year.

A spokeswoman for Ealing told letsrecycle.com that the wards would be using the existing waste and recycling collection models. And, she said the scheme would centre on promoting use of these services.

The council acknowledged that the London borough of Haringey ran an incentive scheme in 2006. However, Ealing insists its service is unique as the Haringey model targeted incentives for the individual, while Ealing is seeking wider community benefit.