News

SOUTHWARK 'IS ONE OF WORST RECYCLERS'

Comments (0)

27 November 2009

Oliver Pugh
oliverp@southwarknews.org

Southwark Council is one of the worst recyclers in the country, according to the latest government figures released this week.

The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has revealed that Southwark recycles 20.89 per cent of household waste it collects.

Only five other boroughs in England had lower rates in 2008/09, including neighbouring Lewisham and Tower Hamlets.

However, the council has pointed to an increase from just 3.5 per cent in 2002 as evidence of its improving service.
The council has a stated aim of reaching 30 per cent recycling in 2010/11, and with an improvement of less than one per cent from the previous year, concerns have been raised it  will not hit this.

Southwark Labour's Environment and Transport spokesman, Cllr Barrie Hargrove, said: "Progress on recycling in Southwark has been painfully slow and we've been warning for some time that the Lib Dems risked breaking their pledge if they didn't take urgent action.

It's one thing for them to break that promise, but to drop to sixth worst recycler in the country is criminal.

"Southwark residents care about the environment and want to do their bit by recycling, but the Lib Dem-run council hasn't lived up to its part of the bargain. It should come as no surprise that when the council makes the system confusing and refuses to recycle common household materials, the rate is worse than in places where those materials are accepted and the system's simple."

Inner city boroughs fared badly in the figures, with Lambeth, Westminster, Hackney and Haringey all appearing in the bottom 30 out of 394 authorities.

A spokesperson for Southwark said: "Southwark's rate of recycling has increased from just 3.5 per cent in 2002 to over 22 per cent currently.

This is a massive increase which we should be really proud of, especially considering that traditional recycling practices like kerbside collection aren't possible in a large part of our borough.

Moreover, we have a long-term strategy in place to significantly build on the improvements in our recycling rate with our new multi-million pound recycling and waste facility that was given planning permission this summer.

We're aiming to achieve a 30 per cent rate in 2010/11 and we have an ambition to have one of the highest recycling rates of any inner city authority in the UK, which our waste contract will ensure we are able to achieve."

---

Social Bookmarks:
del.icio.us Digg Newsvine Reddit Facebook StumbleUpon
Wikipedia: social bookmarking

---

Comments (0)

No comments have been posted.

Post a Comment

Please note Name and E-mail Address are required.

Name
E-mail Address (not displayed)
Comment (you may use HTML tags for style)
Enter Text Shown in Picture*
Comments are moderated, and will not appear on this article until the comment has been approved.