London Remade issues warning over river waste transport

The market development organisation has published a report as the Port of London Authority consults on how to safeguard river wharves to make more use of the River Thames.

London Remade said that 650,000 tonnes of London's municipal waste is currently transported by water each year – 18% of the capital's municipal waste arisings – saving about 100,000 lorry movements each year.

Cory Environmental's Cringle Dock transfer station helps to keep thousands of vehicles off London's congested roads

Of London's 33 boroughs, 18 border the River Thames, while several others are connected via canals and river tributaries. But, London's existing wharves and 42 sites proposed as safeguarded wharves are now under pressure by developers to be turned into residential properties.

Colin Roberts, chairman of London Remade, said: “There needs to be a considerable step change in the way London manages and transports its waste and recyclables.

“Increasing the use of the river could have considerable environmental and economic advantages for London, however, an integrated and co-ordinated approach to the collection, transfer, transport, treatment and disposal of the Capital’s waste is required, if this is to be achievable,” Mr Roberts added.

Achievable
Funded through the Landfill Tax Credit Scheme by Cory Environmental, the London Remade report states that a doubling of current river-borne movements of waste could be achievable. However, it says this would require a change to operational practices and a review of planning consents at existing riverside waste management sites.

London Remade's warning also comes as the Department of Trade and Industry considers a proposal for a new energy-from-waste incinerator in the London Borough of Bexley. As it stands, the only waste disposal site receiving waste transported by the River Thames is the landfill at Mucking in Essex, but this is due to close in 2007.

For the full report, Opportunities for transporting London's waste and recyclables by river, see the London Remade website.