The general election campaign of the 3 major parties did not focus on environmental issues, it is bad enough that other parties didn’t but, the Green Party also ignored the issue and they have been accused of downplaying the issue of climate change. Londoners are particularly bad at composting food. If our city’s waste disposal problems may be likened to the 10-tonne fatberg recently removed from a sewer in Chelsea, then food composting is only the tip of that fatberg.
Roughly 33.9% of household waste in London went for recycling last year, which is a fractional decrease from previous years when London reached 34% – shown by the Defra Stats. It is so bad that a league table based of the figures puts nine of the London boroughs in the nation’s 20 worst performing local authorities by recycling rate. The council said that the relative deprivation in the borough is one of the barriers to recycling which include small, high density properties giving residents fewer opportunities to store recyclable items.
However this year Boris Johnson stated that he wants a 45% recycling rate for London. Doing so will simply bring the capital in line with the nation average. The target set was trashed by some doubt over the ability of the UK to more widely to meet the EU-set goal of 50% by 2020.
The Mayors spokesperson has said that although it does not have direct responsibility for collecting waste, and that City Hall is concerned by the levelling off of recycling rates and there will be continued investment to meet the ambitious targets.