London mayoral contender Ken Livingstone has accused London Mayor Boris Johnson of barely increasing the capitals recycling rate during his term in office, claiming he did much better when he was in the post.
The criticism from Mr Livingstone, the Labour candidate, comes as he vies towin back the post of Mayor from the Conservative candidate, Boris Johnson,at the Mayoral election on May 3.
In his Manifesto for London 2012 Mr Livingstone argues that under Mr Johnsons leadership the recycling rate has crawled up.And, he states:While I was Mayor we improved the amount of waste that is recycled from eight to25 percent. With a Conservative Mayor, that total has crawled on to just 27 percent.
However, incumbent mayor Boris Johnson says in his manifesto that the 2010/11 recycling rate sits at 32%.
Mr Johnson says: Since I became Mayor, working with boroughs, recycling rates have increased from 25 per cent in 2007/08 to 32 per cent in 2010/11. I will continue to work with the boroughs and the London Waste and Recycling Board (LWaRB) to achieve our twin aims of increasing recycling and keeping council tax low.
Mr Johnson gives Defra’s figures as a source for his 32% recycling rate and according to Capital Waste Facts, a website which provides information on the capital’s waste and recycling performance, London’s recycling and composting rate for 2009/10 was 32%. Capital Waste Facts is funded by the London Waste and Recycling Board and managed by LRS Consultancy.
Mr Johnson has previously committed to increasing Londons recycling and composting rate to at least 60% by 2031.
LWaRB
In his election manifesto, Mr Livingstone also criticises the performance of the LWaRB. He says London requires over 800 million of investment in low carbon waste facilities but the LWaRB has singularly failed to deliver. He also highlights the fact that Mr Johnson stepped down from chair of the board (see letsrecycle.com story) claiming that he reneged on his promise to chair the Board after just eighteen months in charge.
Policies
In his manifesto Mr Livingstone also details plans to create a competition for entrepreneurs to develop cost-effective mattress recycling and pledges to support councils in developing at least one anaerobic digestion plant in every borough to process food waste. He also commits to creating a pan-London minimum standard for what local authorities will collect for recycling, to make it easier to recycle.
Mr Livingstone continues to be a long-standing opponent to incineration as he says in his manifesto that he will also oppose the development of any new incinerators, including the energy-from-waste facility planned by Viridor at Beddington to serve the South London Waste Partnership (see letsrecycle.com story) .
He also states that he will oppose extensions of existing incinerators because they crowd out recycling and cause harmful air pollution. Instead he says he will focus on reducing and reusing waste.
Johnson
Waste and recycling policies are thin on the ground in Mr Johnsons manifesto however he has previously committed to several targets in his business and municipal waste strategies which were unveiled in November 2011 (see letsrecycle.com story).
These targets include the ambitious target of zero municipal waste to landfill by 2025, which is also a goal shared by Labour.
Other targets included in Mr Johnsons strategies are the reducing the amount of waste produced per household from 970kg to 790kg in 2031 and increasing the capitals capacity to reuse or repair from 6,000 tonnes-a-year to 30,000 within the same time frame.
For more information on the mayoral candidates policies on waste and recycling, including those from Liberal Democrat candidate Brian Paddick and Green Party candidate Jenny Jones, see the letsrecycle.com special report.
Register for free to comment