The proposals form part of the North London Waste Authority's long-term waste strategy, which is to be submitted to the London Mayor in September 2004.
The strategy, currently in draft form during its consultation period, will govern how waste is managed in the boroughs of Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Hackney, Haringey, Islington and Waltham Forest up until 2020.
The North London Waste Authority has said its preferred option for the strategy would see kerbside recycling schemes switched to collect mixed materials from householders – except in Enfield, where collections are already comingled.
But, community groups in the area have said comingled systems are less flexible than systems that involve householders separating materials at source. A range of groups – including ECT Recycling, Camden Community Recycling, Islington Waste Savers, East London Community Recycling Partnership and Recycling Works Haringey – have called on the Greater London Assembly to step in and suspend the strategy's consultation process.
ECT Recycling is one of the largest recycling collectors in London, and as with other community groups, specialises in collecting material pre-sorted. But, some London boroughs have seen real success with co-mingled recycling systems, including Hillingdon, which is thought to be the best London borough for recycling for 2003/04.
Inflexible
But commenting on the NWLA's proposals for comingling, Worku Lakew, chair of Camden Community Recycling, said: “This strategy will result in all the boroughs being locked into an inflexible, one-size-fits-all approach to recycling for decades to come. Such an approach is not sensible in a diverse area like North London.”
“We call on the GLA to step in and suspend this process, ensure that the assessment of options is subject to independent appraisal and ensure that a proper debate takes place,” he said.
Option
Speaking to letsrecycle.com, the NLWA said the comingled approach is currently only an option, although it is the preferred option. The approach would require three centralised materials recovery facilities to be built in North London, each able to sort 100,000 tonnes of recyclables each year.
Andrew Lappage, head of waste strategy and contracts at the NLWA, said that a report by consultants AEA Technology had identified the comingled approach as the best practicable environmental option (BPEO) for North London.
The strategy's preferred approach would also introduce kerbside collections of kitchen and garden waste for composting in four new composting facilities. The Edmonton Incinerator would be replaced with new energy from waste technology in 2014.
Flaws
However, the community groups criticised the BPEO report the NLWA's strategy has been based on, suggesting it contains “scores” of “specific flaws, omissions and inaccuracies”.
Andy Bond, managing director of ECT Recycling, said: “In parts of North London served by source-separated systems the capture rates of materials for recycling are already higher than those aspired to in 2020 by NLWA, a fact that the NLWA report states is impossible. Co-mingled systems are less flexible than the current services and materials currently collected would be excluded in future.”
The community groups said that compared to the current source-separated service used in many parts of North London, a co-mingled collection would involve increased costs for the boroughs, less job creation, more traffic congestion, lower quality materials, fewer materials collected and a less environmentally friendly service.
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