The Greater London Assembly's environment committee has been told that the latest figures for recycling in the capital puts rates at just 13.2%. This is far behind the national average for England of 17.7%, and makes London the second worst region in England when it comes to recycling.
” We’d like to see a much greater commitment to meeting the 25% target set out in the Mayor’s waste strategy. “
– Darren Johnson, GLA
A report to the committee said that the recycling rate has increased from just 9% in 2001/02 with some 440,000 tonnes of household waste now being recycled.
Assembly Members heard that London is unlikely to meet the Government target of 25% which was endorsed by the Mayor’s Municipal Waste Management Strategy.
Delay
The Mayor’s policy director on environment, John Duffy, told Members that delays with funding and in developing infrastructure had held back progress on recycling by up to a year.
Darren Johnson, chair of the GLA's environment committee, said: “We’d like to see a much greater commitment to meeting the 25% target set out in the Mayor’s waste strategy. It is an important environmental benchmark and it will be very disappointing if we fail to meet it.
“There is a great deal of public support for increased levels of recycling in the capital and we need to see more urgent action to improve collection rates and reduce the amount of waste that is being sent to landfill, “ Mr Johnson added.
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Praise
Despite the warnings over recycling rates, London was praised this week for producing less waste per household than other regions in England. A report from the GLA's economics department found that in 2002, the average London produced 0.46 tonnes of waste each year, while the UK average was 0.53 tonnes.
London Mayor Ken Livingstone said: “I want to see London moving forward to reduce the amount of waste we produce and recycle more.”
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