The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, aims to make London a “zero waste city” as it publishes its Environment Strategy. It aims to cut food and associated packaging waste by 50% by 2030.
By 2026, no biodegradable or recyclable waste will be sent to landfill, and by 2030, 65 percent of London’s municipal waste will be recycled.
To achieve this, London will look not just at how it deals with its waste, but at how products are designed and produced, how Londoners use them, and what happens to them after their original use has ended. This will mean helping Londoners to only use what they need, and to reuse things where they can.
This will begin with food waste and single-use packaging, like coffee cups and plastic bottles, because these make up 30 percent of London’s municipal waste.
Charlotte Morton – “We are pleased to see Sadiq Khan endorsing separate food waste collections across the capital to allow anaerobic digestion to recycle London’s inedible food waste into renewable heat and power, clean transport fuel, and nutrient-rich biofertiliser.”
Anything that can’t be reused will be recycled wherever possible, it says, and when recycling is not an option, waste will be converted into “renewable energy that will be used to heat and power homes”.
The strategy states that no new energy from waste capacity will be needed for London.
The strategy has set targets to:
- set minimum recycling standards for London’s waste authorities to meet by 2020, including a requirement for separate food waste collection
- establish stronger rules to cut pollution from managing and disposing of waste in London
- cut food and associated packaging waste by 50% by 2030, including through:
- supporting community water refill schemes and funding new water fountains to help Londoners use fewer single use plastic bottles
- work with stake holders to prevent waste in the first place by designing out food waste and unnecessary packaging
- new campaigns to make businesses and Londoners aware of how they can waste lessfood and recycle more.
- promote shared waste collection services to businesses and others to share waste collection services so there are fewer vans congesting and polluting London’s streets
- support new businesses that create jobs and help Londoners to reduce, reuse and recycle more
- ensure there are sufficient sites to manage waste in London through the use of the Mayor’s planning powers
- call on government to provide additional funding for London and act faster to cut waste and increase recycling performance.
Responding to the publication of the London Environment Strategy, ADBA Chief Executive Charlotte Morton said: “As anyone who lives in London knows, the city faces a major challenge in tackling the huge amount of food waste produced by millions of homes and businesses every day.
“We are therefore pleased to see Sadiq Khan endorsing separate food waste collections across the capital to allow anaerobic digestion to recycle London’s inedible food waste into renewable heat and power, clean transport fuel, and nutrient-rich biofertiliser.
“What is now needed for this to happen is a commitment from government to roll out separate food waste collections across the whole of England to emulate the example set by Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. We’ll be looking for such a commitment in the forthcoming Resources & Waste Strategy, particularly given that the UK is set to adopt the European Union’s new legislation obliging separate biowaste collections by December 2023.”