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The boroughs composting less than 1 per cent of household rubbish
Mark Prigg, Science Correspondent26 Nov 2008
THOUSANDS of tonnes of rubbish that could be used to make compost are being sent to landfill every week in London.
New government figures show exactly how much waste each borough sends for composting - and there are major discrepancies.
Harrow comes top, sending almost 19per cent of its household waste for composting. Next on the list were Bexley (17.62 per cent), Hillingdon (12.58 per cent), Barnet (12.42 per cent), and Richmond upon Thames (11.54 per cent).
However, six local authorities manage less than one per cent - Kensington and Chelsea, Westminster, Lewisham, City of London, Wandsworth, and Tower Hamlets.
Today politicians called for councils to take action on the problem.
"All the evidence shows that Londoners want to recycle more, but they are being let down by local authorities who are failing to run doorstep collection services for kitchen and garden waste," said Darren Johnson, Green member of the Assembly. "These figures show just how woefully inadequate the composting rates are across most of London.
"Not only can kitchen food scraps and garden waste be used for making compost, but, if anaerobically digested, they can produce 'biogas' which can then be used for cooking gas or for generating mechanical or electrical power."
Anaerobic digestion involves microbes being added to the waste to break it down and produce gas.
Mr Johnson said: "Boroughs must provide comprehensive garden and kitchen waste collection services. This also needs to be supported by adequate composting and anaerobic digestion facilities. In the absence of either one, or both, these compostable wastes will continue to be sent to landfill - incurring landfill taxes which are likely to be passed on to council-tax payers - or will be sent for incineration, thus adding to greenhouse gases and pollution."
London has six composting facilities, with planning permission for one anaerobic digestor.
According to the Mayor's London Plan, 57 composting facilities and 25 anaerobic digestors will be required to manage the capital's waste by 2020. London Councils claimed a lack of garden space meant many boroughs simply had less waste that they could compost.
"Boroughs do take this very seriously, but for inner London boroughs in particular, there are some major issues surrounding collection from high-rise flats," said Stewart Henderson of London Councils.
The figures, from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, covered the financial year 2007/08.
Reader views (16)
I heard that most of there thing happen naturally they just speed them up in tanks or bin whatere and thats if they pay for the work they get done
- Mr X, london, 15/05/2009 01:30
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I have read with interest the article on the'Greengobla'.
My comment is really a question: it concerns the by-product of this biodigester, described "as a sweet smelling liquid which can be dried and used as a fertiliser or a soil enhancer".
Were such a product to be available, I think I would love to obtain and apply to my garden and lawns.
- Michaelcrowther-Green, Reading, U.K., 11/03/2009 21:25
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i have worked in composting in East London for 6 years. We identified a site for an aerobic digestor facility in East London which could process 12 thousand tonnes p/a. There was no funding available, inspite of approaches to LDA and GLA.
Is GLA and LDA going to make funding available to develope the facilities required?
If anyone has funding for such a development, I have the contacts and technical know how and experience to set up the facility
- Jane Wilde, Eastbourne, 01/12/2008 11:19
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I live in C London, borough of Camden. We don't even have any facilities for seperating rubbish or recycling on our street. I was campaigning for it but then my neighbour pointed out that we were probably more likely to get fined for wrongly recycling as opposed to an efficient service.
- Real, London, 27/11/2008 14:30
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All of the boroughs you have named are inner London, where do you suppose the compost or digestate might go?
It will need to be transported miles for any commercial use, adding to congestion.
Either composting or AD plant would need to compliant with the Animal by-products Regulations, if it were to take food waste.
These facilities cost money and have a large land-take, they can also be noisy and odourous at times.
Why not suggest gasification with collection of gas and energy production as this wouold be more suited to inner London boroughs.
- Mike, London UK, 27/11/2008 10:26
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IN Vietnam they are still reusing coke bottles left behind by the Yanks. Here, milk bottles are the only reusable container and they deserve subsidy. When resources run out we will have to reuse containers so we may as well start now but vested interests will see we don't unlike most of Europe. Put 20p deposit on a bottle or a can and you will never see a dumped one
- Jack Spratt, London, 26/11/2008 22:09
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My company specialises in the manufacturing of All types of food wastes into Organic fertilisers that can be utilised for general cultivation purposes instead of using Petro-chemical based fertilisers currently used and purchased for use in London. Our Recycling units are specially engineered using BRITISH TECHNOLOGY to be small and compact for operation in inner city areas, in close proximity to where the waste is generated. The GREENGOBLA System will be intially deployed in BARKING
Next Year to recycle food waste generated in The City and Canary Wharf Area our plans are to deploy up to 10 units in the inner London area capable of Recycling 300,000 tonne of foodwaste by mid 2010. This Recycling
could have been installed commencing 2007 if Finance had been available.
- Philip Moore, peterborough/uk, 26/11/2008 17:58
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For heavens sake, how much compostable material do you expect from inner city housholds like Tower Hamlets, compared with leafy suburbs like Hillingdon?
- Chris, London, 26/11/2008 17:37
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Southwark Council run a very efficient recycling system. Every Friday the contractors collect from my estate and leave recycling bags. I help run the Tenants Association and encourage all residents to recycle. It's a pity other London Boroughs cannot follow Southwark's example. This is about one of the only good things I can praise Southwark about.
- Mrs M Moore, LONDON, 26/11/2008 15:58
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Sutton council started charging for garden waste collection this April. They backed down a few months ago and refunded everyone after a very low takeup rate and huge queues at the local refuse dump (which had already been demolished and replaced with a smaller site). Somehow they also tried to spin this as a victory for the same people that implemented it, typical shoddy liberal thinking.
- Bob, Cheam, 26/11/2008 14:22
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Council staff again isn't it?
Can they do anything right?
- P I Staker, London, 26/11/2008 14:12
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I invest in a company that makes state of the art composting facilities, they can compost everything from garden waste, commerical catering waste and general household food waste through to abbatior waste and sewage sludge.
The facilities are inexpensive to run, have all the relevant EU certifications, produce very little smell or other environmental impact and produce a valuable end product that can be sold.
The whole process really is state-of-the-art and you'd expect local councils to be beating a path to their door, for a relatively small investment we could compost all this stuff that is going into landfill and a whole load of other waste that is not even traditionally compostable.
However many councils seem to practically need a gun held to their head before they make a move on issues such as this, it's sad to see, and it tends to make their attemps to blame households for missing recycling targets look pretty ridiculous.
- Tim, London, 26/11/2008 13:24
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Streets around here haven't been swept for weeks. Tons of compostable leaves are rotting and blocking drains, turning slippery and dangerous.
- Martin H Watson, Teddington, 26/11/2008 13:06
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I doubt Londoners would be quite so keen on recycling if they knew how much it cost them, via their council taxes. Recylcing has certainly has never made a profit as seems to be presumed by a lot of people. Unsurprisingly I've never been able to get the figures out of my local council.
- Willstead Ash, London, 26/11/2008 11:39
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So areas with more gardens compost more waste than other areas?
And areas where it is easy to offer kerbside collections (e.g. suburban areas like Harrow, Bexley etc.)also compost more than inner London areas, where it is supremely difficult?
Amazing analysis.
- Chris H, London, 26/11/2008 11:23
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Runnymede Council in Surrey CHARGES its residents for doorstep recycling of garden waste. They also will not collect plastics (think milk bottles) or cardboard. We once put out some old baking tins, but were told they were the wrong kind of tin!
- Blind Pugh, Woking, UK, 26/11/2008 11:05
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