Waste firm Cory Environmental, which runs the waste disposal contract for the Western Riverside Waste Authority, applied for planning permission for a MRF in June 2003 and had hoped to have the site open by early 2005.
The firm's 30-year waste contract with Western Riverside began in October 2002 and requires two major facilities to be built, an incinerator at Bexley and the 84,000 tonnes per annum MRF at Smuggler's Way.
But Wandsworth council has still not given Cory the green light for the MRF and the waste management company believes that Wandsworth, Lambeth, Hammersmith and Fulham and Kensington and Chelsea could all suffer because of the delay.
Targets
Achilleas Georgiou, spokesman for Cory said: “Part of our contract with Western Riverside is to help the authorities meet their recycling targets. The Smugglers Way MRF was part of that.
“Currently the four boroughs combined have to be recycling 25% of its waste by 2005 and not long ago the figure was 9.5%. A MRF within the boroughs would help us to improve that rate,” he added.
When Cory applied for the MRF, almost 18 months ago, they held open days in the area for local residents and local media to see what was being built. Mr Georgiou said that knowing the MRF was being built gave the residents an idea of where their recycling was going.
He said: “Coupled with the orange sack scheme that is being run in the four boroughs the locals are really beginning to take to recycling. Without the MRF they may not be so keen.”
Mr Georgiou also said that a two year wait can cause problems with budgeting. He said that construction prices can go up and down considerably over a two year period and the costs of building the MRF could now be much greater.
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