Livingstone concerned by Londons recycling efforts

The Mayor of London Ken Livingstone has expressed concern about the municipal waste management performance of the city.  Livingstone’s announcement from last week came in reaction to figures published by Defra that showed regional recycling rates ranged from 22% in London to up tp 35% in the East Midlands and South West.

Mr Livingstone said, “These latest Defra figures confirm once again that London is lagging behind the UK in waste management. Other parts of the country are improving their recycling rates at a faster rate while London continues to burn and bury its waste at an unacceptably high level.”

Several local authorities in London have been dissapointed by Mr Livingstones remarks. Mr Penny of Westminster Council, said:

“These comments are slightly scattergun in that there are huge variations in performance across London. For example in Westminster 95% of residents live in flats whereas one of the highest performing boroughs is Bexley which is a leafy suburb. By tarring all London boroughs with the same brush, the Mayor is showing a lack of understanding of what contributes to London’s overall recycling rate. It’s difficult to argue with targets; they do shift and drive recycling but you cannot compare London to other regions simply on percentages. Although performance has increased more rapidly in other parts of the country, one would have expected the Mayor to recognise the unique challenges of recycling in London. This may be part of a wider mayoral agenda to take greater operational power for himself.”

Other local authorities also highlighted population and housing issues as other contributing factors to the lower recycling rates in London. Andrew Baker, waste strategy officer for Harrow Council, said: “London is significantly different to any other region in England. The average density of population is twice as high in London compared to other cities such as Manchester, Liverpool and Nottingham. Outside of these cities population density is much lower and installing recycling facilities is much easier.”