The disclosure came as the newly-elected mayor opened the Bywaters materials recycling facility in London. Mr Johnson used the occasion to pledge a swift boost to recycling in the capital and promise moves to reduce London's dependency on landfill.
Mr Johnson opened his speech to guests and Bywaters personnel saying that “I have been a dustman in my time – I was in Australia where you would call it a garbo.”
He went on to say how important it was for London to move away from landfill, highlighting smells from the landfill near junction 2 of the M40. Explaining how he often used the motorway to drive to his former Henley parliamentary constituency, the mayor said: “This is caused by a vast emanation of vapour from the landfill knocking out motorists on the M40. The landfill site is filled by the great volume of waste that is sent by our metropolis: mattresses, nappies and other rubbish.”
Of 3.5 million tonnes of waste sent out from London, only a quarter of this is recycled, Mr Johnson noted.
Instead, the London mayor said that rather than seeing “an Olympic size swimming pool of landfill coming out of London every day,” he would rather see “waste converted into gas to create clean energy” and “I do want push up London's recycling rate during my mayoralty.”
The mayor also said that he would like to see a 70% recycling rate by 2020 and although he seemed to imply that this was for municipal waste, it is understood that he was referring to commercial and industrial waste.
Simplification
Praising the MRF, he continued: “I am thrilled to be celebrating your achievement so early in my mayoralty.”
Looking ahead, the mayor said that “if people want to do recycling our job is to make it easier. I hope to announce further initiatives early in my mayorality to promote recycling.”
While Mr Johnson did not say what these would be, besides signalling his support for commingling of material, he did talk after his speech about the Recyclebank system which he has seen in America. “New York has huge rates of recycling. They have Recyclebank where your rubbish weighed and you get a voucher for the value of your rubbish.”
Newham
The MRF opening also heard from Sir Robin Wales, mayor of Newham, the borough which is home to the MRF. Sir Robin recalled how he too had worked as a dustman during holiday periods when he was younger, remarking that he had “never before seen such a clean plant”.
He praised the plant for its job creation: “There are 18,000 people in Newham who have never worked and this is job creation of 100 jobs.”
John Glover, managng director of the family-owned company which owns Bywaters, said it had taken 10 years of research to develop the plant which had been part funded by monies received to move former company sites out of the Olympics area. And, he pointed to the MRF also being used for local authority commingled material. “This is also designed to receive residual material – whether from dry municipal or clean commercial. Our machine has been designed to cope with it.”
While the MRF is situated in Newham, it will not be receiving material from the borough which has one of the worst recycling rates in the UK. Sir Robin Wales told letsrecycle.com that he was very aware of the low rate and that it would be high on the agenda of the borough's new green-focused chief executive who joins shortly from the Isle of Wight. Sir Robin remarked that while the borough's recycling rate was low, through its contract with Shanks,via the East London Waste Authority, it was sending waste materials for use in fuel bricks.
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