London fund reports substantial successes

The success of the fund was hailed in a report this week produced by three of the capital's main organisations: the Mayor of London, London Councils and London Waste Action.

Former fund director Simon Read, who helped produce the report, explained that the aim of the fund was to encourage London boroughs to put forward projects that would make a difference to the recycling rate which stood at just 11% when the fund started.

Value

Mr Read said: “We wanted to engage with boroughs and because of the limited funding available it was crucial to at least double the value of the funds we put in. Authorities had to come up with projects which they were able to add to or find private sector partners.”

The fund was hard won in the first place. The then environment and recycling minister Michael Meacher, was personally won over by the argument that the capital should have its own fund, aside from support for the rest of England. Part of the reasoning was that many London boroughs lagged behind the rest of the country, explained Mr Read.

A total of 134 London-based projects benefited with 45% involving kersbisde collection, 33% on infrastructure and 15% on awareness. Alongside this support, Mr Read explained that a separate achievement was in helping boroughs in terms of writing structured and forward-looking business and projects plans for recycling and waste. “Part of the value of the project was to do with these aims.”

Kerbside

The kerbside work was a central part of the Fund, with the Mayor's Waste Strategy requiring London boroughs to collect at least three materials by 2005. Mr Read says that a procurement scheme for bins and containers through the European Journal helped get competitive prices for authorities.

“We also wanted to increase the processing infrastructure, we were really very concerned that this could constrain recycling. One example of a success for us was the Cleanaway MRF at Greenwich which received £1.5 million funding from us. This resulted in Greenwich being charged a lower gate fee and made it economic for them to start recycling earlier than they would have done.”

Other examples include £2 million which went to Thames Waste Management – now Viridor – towards the closed vessel composting facility and front end of an MBT plant in Sutton at Beddington Lane. In Edmonton, North London Waste received £2 million for an in-vessel composting facility.

Awareness

Alongside the infrastructure and kerbside work, Mr Read said that awareness and education work was vital. “In the four years of operation, the Fund supported 22 awareness, education and promotion projects through grants totalling £7.8 million.”

This included the “London let's recycle more” campaign and work with WRAP.

The report is detailed and is aimed to be as transparent as possible. Mr Read points to the relatively low costs level for Fund which had “a small in-house implementation and development team”. Costs ranged from £410,000 in year one to £540,000 in year four and acknowledgements are made to waste companies Cleanaway, Cory Environmental and Thames Waste Management for their landfill tax contributions towards the projects.

Best practice

Commenting on the achievements of the Fund, London Waste Action chairman Doug Benjafield said: “The Fund has not only helped develop a new infrastructure for reducing, managing and recycling waste in the capital, but also stands as testament to the benefits of an integrated inclusive approach between public and private sectors. One of its key successes was providing a vehicle for sharing best practice across all organisations involved.”

Boroughs

Councillor Daniel Moynihan, chairman of London Councils transport and environment committee, chose to highlight the work of the boroughs in pushing up recycling rates, partly reflecting the discussions over the future funding of waste grants in London.

He said: “This report highlights the range of efforts and initiatives that can be found across the boroughs to improve sustainable waste management in London. It is the boroughs who have been leading the way in driving up the capital's recycling rate and they who have worked closely with their communities to help reduce the amount of waste London sends to landfill.”

Funding gap

Currently there is a gap in funding provision for the type of work done by the fund. Defra has proposed a new London Waste and Recycling Board which will operate a fund. However, this structure is opposed by the Mayor although it seems likely to be established in legislation this autumn. Delays to the current London Bill could however jeopardise the operation of the fund from April 2008 and some boroughs may even face financial pressures because of this.