The Mayor accused the London boroughs of neglecting residents in “either not providing adequate services or not suitably advertising the services they do provide” for the collection of hazardous waste.
– Ken Livingstone
The concerns were voiced by Mr Livingstone as he continued to press for a single waste disposal authority for London under his control – despite last month's failed bid to establish an authority through the Greater London Authority Bill (see letsrecycle.com story).
But even aside from the power struggle between the Mayor, the boroughs and Defra, Mr Livingstone posed a serious question as to the 10,500 tonnes of hazardous waste generated each year by London's 7.2 million residents.
The Mayor said just 200 tonnes of this material was “properly disposed of in specialist controlled incinerators or specialist landfill sites” during 2005.
He said only two vehicles were collecting the material for the whole of London – which might include toxic, corrosive or flammable household products, chemicals, garden pesticides, paints, oils and batteries – aside from Hillingdon, which does have its own collection service.
Furthermore, only five sites were available for householders to take some kinds of hazardous wastes, the Mayor said, in Barnet, Kingston, Merton, Richmond and Southwark.
Mr Livingstone suggested that around 10,000 tonnes of household hazardous waste each year – the equivalent to the combined loads of 1,500 waste collection vehicles – was being mixed with normal household waste, with hazardous liquids being poured down the drain.
Rethink
The Mayor of London commented: “We now need reassurance from the government that they will rethink on a Single Waste Disposal Authority to ensure London’s hazardous waste is safely handled.”
The Mayor's concerns over London's “missing” household hazardous waste were reinforced by the Green Party, with the London Assembly member Jenny Jones demanding action.
She said: “The fact that this hazardous waste is simply going missing shows how bureaucratic and extremely complex the collection system is. The fact that 10,000 tonnes of hazardous waste has been going missing for years, shows how complacent London’s local authorities have been about dumping hazardous waste in someone else’s back garden.
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“The government and regulatory authorities call this hazardous waste for a reason. Most of it is fairly low level risk, but it is the cumulative effect of thousands of tonnes, which is worrying. This waste is likely to be causing pollution by being dumped in landfills, burned or entering our waterways.”
Ms Jones, who is a councillor in Southwark and a former Deputy Mayor of London, called for “appropriate” collection services to be set up to stop householders dealing with hazardous waste incorrectly. “There are some Londoners who want to dispose of their hazardous waste legitimately but stumble over the cumbersome bureaucracy that is in place,” she said.
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