The pledge came in a new waste strategy that was adopted by the North London Waste Authority this week, which could see over 200 million spent on new waste infrastructure before 2020.
The Authority manages waste collected from 708,000 households in Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Hackney, Haringey, Islington and Waltham F orest. The new strategy was adopted by the NWLA in the week of the official opening of its new 60 million waste and recycling centre in Islington (see letsrecycle.com story). Some of the borough councils are yet to formally adopt the strategy.
Through its contractor LondonWaste, the Authority manages 945,000 tonnes of municipal waste. At the moment, about 42% of this goes to the Edmonton incinerator, about 48% to landfill and just 9% of municipal waste is recycled.
If successful, the new strategy should see 46% of municipal waste recycled or re-used, 34% recovered through energy-from-waste and 19% sent to landfill in 2020.
And, the strategy aims to divert 40,000 tonnes of material from landfill each year by 2020 through home composting initiatives, ensuring that 25% of the 330,000 households with gardens in North London are composting their green waste.
The Authority's government-set recycling and composting targets are to achieve a 12% rate for household waste by 2003/04 and 18% by 2005/06. The Authority believes it has achieved the 2003/04 target and should achieve its 2005/06 target. And, it believes it will have no trouble in meeting the demands of the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme until about 2011, when the allowance allocations could start to prove difficult.
Infrastructure
The next 16 years could see the Authority spending 50 million on four new in-vessel composting facilities with a total capacity of 275,000 tonnes a year, as well as 50 million on a new 250,000 tonne mechanical biological treatment plant. When the Edmonton plant is decommissioned in 2014, at the end of the current LondonWaste disposal contract, a further 115 million could be spent on a new energy-from-waste recovery facility.
However, the strategy says the Authority will also consider new technologies including pyrolysis and anaerobic digestion.
The Authority said its eight recycling and re-use centres would be improved to improve the average 27% recycling and composting rate (21,123 tonnes out of a total of 78,181 tonnes) to 60% by 2015. Kerbside recycling services will be expanded to 95% of relevant households with capture rates boosted to 65% by 2020 under the strategy.
Speaking to letsrecycle.com after the adoption of the strategy, the NWLA's head of waste strategy and contracts, Andrew Lappage, said that some changes had been introduced into the strategy at a late stage to allow local authorities the flexibility to use different recycling and waste collection systems.
He said: “There's much greater flexibility in the strategy. Collection authorities are free to choose between whatever mix of comingled or source-separated kerbside collection system – as long as they tell other authorities what they are doing by September next year.”
Charging
The strategy suggested that if the government allowed councils to charge householders for the waste they produced, it would be able to reach a recycling rate closer to 60% by 2020. The Authority is already investigating the possibility of charging the boroughs for the amount of waste generated on average per household, within its current tonnage-based levy system.
However, the strategy document said that the Mayor's Municipal Waste Management Strategy states that providing financial incentives or rebates for householders to recycle their waste is “the best way to increase recycling and introduce a polluter pays principle to waste management in London”.
It revealed: “The Partner Authorities are keen to consider the opportunities offered by rebate and incentive systems during the implementation of this strategy.”
One of the councils in the borough, Barnet, has already achieved some success through its “compulsory” recycling scheme (see letsrecycle.com story).
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