Waste issues have not been at the heart of the London Mayoral campaign, with candidates largely focusing on air quality, transport and housing as the headline concerns of voters.
However, with recycling rates in the capital among some of the lowest in the UK, and increasing calls for harmonisation of recycling systems across London boroughs, each of the four main candidates has sought to offer some clarity on what they would look to do on recycling should they be ushered in to City Hall.
Several waste and recycling proposals have been put forward, including new rules on packaging, cutting the amount of waste sent to landfill and new targets for reuse of products.
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Conservatives – Zac Goldsmith
Conservative mayoral candidate Zac Goldsmith features a ‘cleaning up’ London section in his manifesto, and as part of this, targets improvements in waste and recycling in the capital. Although recycling is not a prominent feature in his overall campaign, Mr Goldsmith has put forward several proposals with a view to achieving recycling improvements, primarily focusing on reducing fly tipping and achieving zero waste to landfill.
In a bid to improve residents’ attitudes to recycling across the capital, Mr Goldsmith has outlined plans to work with London boroughs and Resource London to move towards a ‘London Guarantee’, referring to a ‘common set of London-wide collection standards’, moving away from the range of existing schemes currently in place.
The manifesto outlines how up to 50% of London’s residents live in flats and may find kerbside recycling difficult. To overcome this, Mr Goldsmith has pledged to monitor trials, which are taking place in Hackney where flatted properties can use a new type of green sack rather than a box for their collections.
Similarly to other candidates, Mr Goldsmith has put a focus on London becoming a zero waste city, proposing to set out a Zero Waste Route Map ahead of London’s target to move towards a ‘zero waste economy’ by 2020. As part of this Mr Goldsmith has prioritised five sectors – food, electronics, textiles, built environment and packaging to become waste free.
Additionally, he has also outlined how he intends to make products purchased by the GLA, TfL and the Met recyclable or re-usable in order to further support the transition to a circular economy.
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Labour – Sadiq Khan
Sadiq Khan has put forward little mention of recycling in his manifesto, but notes that he will ‘lead on increasing recycling and reducing the city’s waste footprint’ and work to help London better achieve the 65% recycling target by 2030.
Mr Khan’s manifesto also links the waste sector with job opportunities in reuse, repair, remanufacturing and materials innovation.
Similarly, the manifesto mentions waste in terms of financial savings, to which he has pledged to ensure local authorities get the best deals on new contracts for refuse and TfL deliver major efficiency savings, including cutting waste.
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Liberal Democrats – Caroline Pidgeon
The Liberal Democrats’ mayoral candidate Caroline Pidgeon has set out a ‘Zero Waste London’ strategy with a focus on improving recycling rates, minimising packaging waste and increasing the generation of energy from waste.
Ms Pidgeon has sought to focus on the long term goal of a ‘closed loop’ approach, by working with boroughs and setting tough new targets to encourage individuals and businesses reducing and reusing their waste.
The manifesto adds that she will seek to support manufacturers in minimising packaging and simplifying the mix of plastics entering the waste stream. Furthermore, Ms Pidgeon wants branded goods companies to fund ‘on-the-go’ recycling collections, enabling people to recycle when they are out of the house.
As the only candidate to directly reference food waste, Ms Pidgeon has pledged to encourage every borough to introduce food waste collections and consequently move to a system of separate collections.
Additionally, Ms Pidgeon aims to use the zero waste commitment to push for the development of jobs in energy-from-waste schemes like AD, as well as increasing the energy generated by AD.
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Green Party – Sian Berry
The Greens’ candidate Sian Berry has put a focus on waste infrastructure within her manifesto, pledging for London to become self-sufficient in waste processing by 2030.
Ms Berry has also pledged to work towards blocking plans for new landfill or ‘mass-burn’ incineration sites, specifically working with Sutton and Croydon councils to prevent the planned energy from waste plant at Beddington from going ahead.
In a similar notion to the Conservatives ‘common recycling’ pledge, Ms Berry wants to roll out a consistent waste collection service across London, to ensure that boroughs can work on common standards and information whilst residents are given clarity on recycling.
Furthermore, to minimise impact on local communities, plans include building more and smaller waste facilities and ensuring the waste hierarchy is applied across the capital’s waste activities.
Particularly focusing on making sure waste that can be reused is not sent to recycling facilities and likewise, waste facilities that generate energy don’t take waste that can be recycled.
Elsewhere, Ms Berry proposes to lobby the government in tightening up packaging regulations, removing single use plastic bottles and unrecyclable materials from retailers. As well as requiring manufacturers to use a certain percentage of recycled and biodegradable content in packaging.
