The money is likely to come after the council agreed specific environmental targets with the government under a public service agreement in 2002. The agreement stated that Greenwich would receive a reward if it exceeded statutory targets.
Part of the package of achievements which the London borough expects to be rewarded for include more than doubling its rate of recycling from 9% to 19.2%.
The council’s waste and recycling team has not heard exactly how much its share of the money will be as yet and is therefore could not comment for what it might use the money.
Greenwich had a statutory recycling target of 18% to reach by 05/06, but recycling managers agreed to set themselves a target of 19% of 2004/05 under the public service agreement.
Kerbside
The council's waste policy officer, Andrew Chambres said the borough has exceeded its target of 2004/05 by 0.2% via a number of measures. He said: “This year we have extended our recyclable collection system from 30,000 houses to all 70,000 properties in the borough including flats.”
He added that the service extension was enabled by the opening of Cleanaway's materials recycling facility, which is capable of taking a range of materials (see letsrecycle.com story). “Previously we were collecting paper, card, cans and plastic. But the new infrastructure means we can collect glass because the MRF can accept it.
“The additional tonnage from that and the flat collections have caused a substantial increase in the rate,” he said.
Mr Chambres admitted the council was originally concerned that they might not meet the targets because the MRF was delayed in coming online. “We were fortunate,” he revealed.
Other environmental measures the council met included reducing fly-tipping by almost half and the quicker removal of grafitti.
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