Wandsworth In Bottom Five London Boroughs For Domestic Recycling
Only 20.7% achieved when target of 50% is set for 2020
A recent report on recycling levels across London has shown a relatively poor ranking for Wandsworth Council with the fourth lowest level.
Based on municipal waste data derived from WasteDataFlow the report shows the total household waste recycling, composting and reuse rate for London local authorities from April 2014 to March 2015.
The local authorities are listed in overall performance order, only Bexley manages to recycle above the target 50%. Four of the thirty two London boroughs achieve above the national domestic recycling average of 44.9%. The top five boroughs are:
1.
Bexley London Borough Council - 54.00%
2. Bromley London Borough Council - 48.00%
3. Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames - 45.70%
4. Harrow London Borough Council - 45.10%
5. Hillingdon London Borough Council - 43.80%
The worst performing boroughs are:
28. Hammersmith and Fulham London Borough Council – 20.70%
29. Wandsworth London Borough Council – 20.70%
30. Westminster City Council - 19.10%
31. Newham London Borough Council - 17.20%
32. Lewisham London Borough Council - 17.10%
With a simple one bag recycling system in the borough it is surprising that more is not recycled by residents. In 2011 Cllr Cook told this website: "In Wandsworth you won't have to put up with a rainbow of different coloured bins - there's just one orange sack or orange-lidded bin for everything - and we pick up rubbish and recycling weekly, so it won't pile up in your garden."
As part of a way to encourage resident to recycle, in 2015 and 2016 the Council has been part of the Golden Ticket scheme run by Western Riverside Waste Authority (WRWA) - through which residents could win £250 to £500 if their recycling bag is chosen and contains one of the Golden Tickets.
A spokesperson for Wandsworth Council told this website:
“We provide a weekly doorstep recycling collection service to more than 90,000 homes and have installed nearly 3,500 communal recycling bins at more than 2,000 locations across the borough to make it easy for people to recycle at home. We’re fully committed to working with our residents to maximise recycling levels.
Continuing:
“Many parts of the country have seen rates fall recently. Paper recycling is down because people are using tablets instead of buying newspapers and magazines and retailers are cutting down on packaging and unfortunately because around 14 per cent of the recycling we collect is contaminated with non-recycleable waste and must be excluded from our figures, this lowers our results by a significant amount.
“Comparisons with other boroughs can also be misleading. Much of our general waste is recycled to produce electricity plus metals and aggregates for the construction industry. We aren’t allowed to include these in the figures but if we were our rate would more than double to 45 per cent. Also some of the leafier outer London boroughs have more houses with big gardens and can include green waste in their figures. In contrast we have the third largest number of high rise properties in the UK, which places us at an obvious disadvantage in these league tables."
The WRWA has been asked to comment.
November 30, 2016