For those interested in Recycling and Waste to Energy Plants
note last sentence 'including a target to generate 25 per cent of capital's energy locally by this time.' Sorry about its lengthThis statement has implications concerning the possible location of a waste to energy plant for West London.'The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: ‘My waste plans seek to maximise the economic value of London’s waste material whilst moving away from environmentally damaging methods to dispose of it. This will include funds for infrastructure to make recycling easier and to use waste to generate cleaner, more efficient energy. I also want to ensure our streets and town centres are rubbish free to improve quality of life especially as we gear up to welcome the world to London in 2012.’Boroughs face a range of challenges in providing good quality, convenient and cost effective collection services especially for flats and multi-occupancy buildings, which account for 50 per cent of London's housing stock. The Mayor is working with the London Waste and Recycling Board (LWARB) to allocate £5 million for projects to help adapt flats to boost recycling facilities such as putting newly designed collection points near doorways or supporting changes to bin chute designs. Another priority is to reduce the amount of still-usable items being chucked away. The Mayor is helping to develop a London - wide reuse network to ensure people have access to organisations that repair items or help people pass items on to others - for example furniture reuse schemes or support for Freecycle or Freegle. A well resourced, coordinated and publicised network could divert up to 1.7 million reuseable household items from landfill every year, representing 40,000 tonnes of waste and saving £5million off London's annual waste bill - it could also create training opportunities and jobs. LWARB has committed at least £4million to the London Community Resource Network to help expand their existing activities and is supporting Trinity, a charity that collects unwanted but good quality furniture and sells it through its shops. Trinity's proceeds are used to house and train single homeless people, who also gain new skills working in the retail units. LWARB’s funding will go towards setting up three new outlets, which the charity estimate will help create up to 69 new employment opportunities and divert 2,000 tonnes of furniture from the waste stream. By 2015, the Mayor wants the capital to be recycling at least 45 per cent of its municipal waste rising to 60 per cent by 2031, sending zero municipal waste to landfill by 2025. With landfill rates set to increase from current associated costs of around £250 million to £310 million by 2014, these proposals seek to help boroughs to minimise pressure on future council tax bills. A key strand of doing this involves with LWARB to fund new infrastructure to increase capacity and reduce reliance on landfill and incineration. LWARB has recently committed £4.5m to extend a recycling facility in East London which is set to create 90 jobs. It is also supporting with £8.9 million a gasification plant in east London, which will use waste to heat local homes and businesses in a greener way.The Mayor also wants to improve Londoners' quality of life by making streets cleaner, tackling litter especially the blight of chewing gum, with a focus on making London's streets as clean as possible for 2012 with better access to 'on the go' recycling facilities. The Mayor recently hosted two summits at City Hall on the topics of chewing gum litter and street litter bringing together key parties to find solutions to the challenges of redoubling efforts to clean up the city. He also announced plans to increase litter bins in or near Tube stations by 25 per cent. The Mayor's municipal strategy covers waste collected by boroughs coming from households, some small businesses and litter from streets and parks. The cost of managing this waste is approximately £580m every year. Business waste accounts for 80 per cent of all waste generated in London and costs an estimated £2bn to manage. Boroughs are obliged to be in general conformity to the Mayor's municipal waste strategy, a statutory document. The Mayor's draft municipal waste strategy and business waste strategy are open to consultation until 14 January 2010. Both can be viewed at: www.london.gov.uk Notes to Editors o The Mayor has appointed James Cleverly AM as chair of the London Waste and Recycling Board. LWARB has £72.9million to distribute over three years until 2012. For more information on the London Waste and Recycling Board, visit: www.lwarb.gov.uk o The Mayor’s Food to Fuel Alliance focuses on encouraging the development of food waste infrastructure in London. The Alliance operates a brokerage service that promotes cross-boundary and cross-sector delivery partnerships to achieve economies and efficiencies of scale, increase value for money, and share risk. The Alliance is open to any organisation that either produces food waste, provides infrastructure or uses waste-derived energy, fuel or materials. o The Mayor’s target for commercial and industrial waste recycling is 70 per cent by 2020 and for construction and demolition waste, 95 per cent by 2020. o In 1989, London's boroughs recycled just 2.1 per cent of the municipal waste they collected. Today it is 25 per cent. o Municipal waste is mostly paper and cardboard and organic waste (food and green garden waste). Municipal waste is collected by or on behalf of London's 33 borough councils. o There is considerable variation in household recycling and composting across the capital's 33 boroughs ranging from 15 per cent to just over 50 per cent. The average performance in 2008/2009 for household recycling was 29 per cent. o Comparable city municipal recycling rates: Berlin - 41 per cent; Sydney - 29 per cent; Paris - 19 per cent. o The Mayor has a target to cut carbon emissions by 60 per cent by 2025 including a target to generate 25 per cent of capital's energy locally by this time.'
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