Priorities for the Fund

Priorities

The Fund has three main priority areas that have equal standing:

• Priority 1- Enabling recycling collections and improving participation through Awareness, Education and Promotion
• Priority 2 - London's Strategic Materials Recycling and Processing infrastructure
• Priority 3 - Waste Reduction and reuse

Together they aim to support the overall thrust of the Mayor's Municipal Waste Strategy, particularly through enabling the growth of waste in London to be stabilised at a rate of 2% a year and a movement towards self-sufficiency, together with achieving the recycling targets and landfill diversion targets for London as a whole.

Priority 1- Enabling recycling collections and improving participation through Awareness, Education and Promotion

The Mayor's Municipal Waste Management Strategy* states; "that by September 2004, all London Boroughs must introduce collection from homes of materials for recycling, except where impracticable, in which case exceptionally intensive and effective 'bring' systems should be developed, to meet and exceed the national recycling targets."

Enabling recycling collections and improving participation

The Fund has, over the first two years of operation, made a significant contribution through funding projects that support initiatives by many waste collection authorities that are designed to meet the authorities' and London's overall recycling targets. However, many more new and improved recycling collection schemes need to be implemented if 2005/6 recycling and composting targets and the Mayor's own targets for London are to be met. Measures are also required to maximise participation where recycling collections have been introduced.

As well as the multi-material dry recyclable collections already implemented or planned, more needs to be done to capture green and organic kitchen waste for composting. Between 20 and 30 per cent of household waste such as kitchen vegetable waste, tea bags and green garden waste is suitable for composting. A significant increase is needed if requirements to divert biodegradable wastes from landfill are to be met. The Fund will support projects to enable the separate collection of organic waste (with the emphasis on kitchen waste) but only where it can be demonstrated that efforts to encourage home composting and other initiatives to minimise green waste have already been introduced.

Crucially, where waste collection authorities are providing a recycling service, participation by householders and others using the service must be encouraged to maximise participation and where necessary the service itself should be improved to make it easy to use. Unless participation rates are high, recycling targets will not be achieved and the full value of the investment made in the recycling service is not fully realised. Schemes to increase participation are particularly encouraged.

*"Rethinking Rubbish in London - The Mayor's Municipal Waste Management Strategy"; The Greater London Authority; September 2003; ISBN 1 85261 521 4

The Fund is looking for proposals designed to support the expansion of recycling and increase participation of local recycling schemes. It expects to receive proposals at least, though not necessarily exclusively, under the following categories:

• maximising participation in local recycling and composting arrangements
  
• multi-material recycling collections,
  
• organic waste recycling collections.
  
• rationalisation and improvement of existing "bring" recycling systems.

Priority 1A: Increasing participation in existing and new local recycling schemes (e.g.)-

• Improving "buy-in" by local residents and others to existing and new local recycling schemes so that participation is maximised and to a more effective level. This process can be assisted through initiatives that encourage a more consistent operational approach across adjoining boroughs.
  
• Improving the local operational arrangements, including information and instructions to householders about how to make the best use of their local recycling schemes and facilities.
  
• Schemes that enable boroughs to monitor performance and give accurate feedback on recycling performance to individual households, groups of houses or individual streets or communities.

Priority 1B: Multi-materials Recycling Collections

• Extending the provision of recycling collections from homes
  
• Introducing and extending recycling collections for "hard to reach" premises, such as estate
• blocks, flats over shops and other multiple occupation premises

Priority 1C: Organic waste suitable for composting

• Introducing and extending collection arrangements to enable organic (green and kitchen) waste to be composted but with particular emphasis on kitchen waste and without increasing the overall amount of green waste going into the municipal waste stream.

Priority 1D: Complementing mainstream recycling collection

• Rationalise existing "bring" recycling systems to complement existing and new home and "near-entry" recycling collections and improve the quality of operation.

Awareness, Education and Promotion

The success of initiatives "to reduce waste and recycle more" depend on changing the public's attitude to waste minimisation and recycling, and their behaviour when dealing with waste in everyday life, as well as when choosing lifestyles and purchasing goods and services.

Locally and across London, more needs to be done to inform people about the importance of minimising waste, re-using and recycling and the benefits socially, economically and for the environment. Many people have a poor understanding and awareness of the benefits and the potential for reusing goods that have been refurbished and remanufactured, and the costs to society and the local community (e.g. higher council charges) if they do not individually contribute to reducing the waste that requires collection.

Some authorities already work with schools to provide more information and assist learning about the importance of minimising waste, re-use and recycling. Initiatives include schools actions clubs, specialist classrooms and the provision of other learning resources. Benefits could be gained through extending these initiatives and through targeting young people in the higher age ranges, in schools, sixth form colleges, FE colleges and universities.

Priority 1E: Building awareness locally and across London

• Introducing and sustaining awareness campaigns and learning initiatives locally and London-wide designed to raise awareness about the need to minimise waste, reuse and recycle more.

Priority 1F: Schools, colleges and other training establishment

• Schemes that promote waste reduction, reuse and recycling in schools and other establishments where young people are trained. Examples of such schemes might include
  
• Schools and colleges waste action clubs
  
• Specialist learning facilities and resources that promote waste awareness

Priority 2 - London's Strategic Materials Recycling and Processing infrastructure

London has an inadequate network of facilities for handling and processing recyclable waste. The built infrastructure, equipment and vehicle fleet needs to change. The Fund aims to assist this process by encouraging inward investment through injecting capital and where appropriate revenue support to stimulate earlier investment by the waste and resources sector and boroughs in partnership than might otherwise occur. Developing this infrastructure also provides important opportunities for skills learning and job creation.

The future infrastructure needs to support reuse, recycling, composting and other processing operations and be strategically located, suitably designed, sized and equipped. One aim of the Fund is to encourage more effective use of existing local authority owned land, land in the ownership of the waste and resources sector and other private sector owned land, by encouraging its development for use connected with resource reprocessing or recycling.

Unless this processing infrastructure is established in the next 2-4 years, it is increasingly unlikely that London will become self sufficient in waste management terms and be able to meet the Government 2010 recycling targets. Not meeting these targets is also likely to result in spiralling costs for waste disposal authorities in London - as a consequence of London's inability to avoid penalties through the Landfill Trading Allowance scheme (LATS).

Four categories are proposed designed to promote and support the expansion of the waste infrastructure network - specifically:

• Multi-materials sorting facilities
  
• Bulking and transfer facilities for source separated waste
  
• Aerobic Composting and Anaerobic digestion facilities
  
• Other recycling led waste management facilities including Reuse and Recycling centres (civic amenity sites).

Priority 2A: Multi-materials sorting facilities

• Establish new waste recycling infrastructure facilities

Priority 2B: Bulking facilities for source separated waste for recycling and composting

• Establish new and improve existing bulking facilities for source separated waste for recycling and composting

Priority 2C: Aerobic Composting and Anaerobic digestion facilities

• Establish community composting facilities where this is feasible and cost effective
  
• Establish closed vessel and other composting facilities in appropriate locations, so that composting of London's green and kitchen waste can be maximised
  
• Establish anaerobic digestion facilities that support the recycling of London's household waste

Priority 2D: Reuse and recycling centres (Civic amenity sites) and other recycling led facilities

• Improvements to existing civic amenity sites - shifting the emphasis to reuse and recycling and making sites easier to use
  
• Establishing new reuse and recycling centres to improve availability across London
  
• Establishing and improving other recycling led facilities

Priority 3 - Waste Reduction and reuse

The Fund places a particularly high priority on encouraging and supporting imaginative and innovative projects that aim to minimise waste. The Fund will if necessary make additional funding available to this priority if the indicative amounts allocated (see section 5 below) prove to be insufficient.

Reducing the amount of waste that we all produce is a crucial yet challenging element of a strategy designed to achieve sustainable waste management. Achieving this reduction requires a significant shift in behaviour, lifestyles and attitudes to waste, but, if successful it offers potentially high returns in lower long term costs of waste management operations and a reduced number of extra facilities, both which benefit local communities.**

Clear action is needed in London to halt the growth of household waste. It is projected that, if waste continues to grow unchecked at the 'combined' borough rate of growth, the amount of municipal waste that will require management in London would almost double by 2020, to 8.6 million tonnes. It is unlikely that such a growth rate can be sustained until 2020. We need to move to a situation where growth waste is stabilised to 2% a year by 2006 due to the impact of waste reduction policy measures, as reflected in the Mayor's Strategy and the Strategy Unit report. This would result in arisings of 6.5 million tonnes by 2020.

There are currently few direct incentives for waste authorities to reduce and reuse the waste they deal with. This issue is of major strategic importance - if waste growth is not reversed local authorities will have to provide the services to deal with the rising amounts. This would place a significant additional burden on local authority budgets.

Feedback from London's waste authorities is that the Fund needs to do more to promote and encourage waste minimisation through reduction and reuse initiatives.
Under this main priority two categories, designed to differentiate and stimulate projects aimed at cutting down on waste and projects aimed at diverting material from the waste stream through reuse, are adopted.

**Extract from "Waste not, Want not - a strategy for tackling the waste problem in England"; Cabinet Office Strategy Unit; November 2002; © Crown copyright 2002

Priority 3A: Waste Reduction

• Establish and improve arrangements that cut down on waste production. Examples might include -
  
  
  • Home and community composting schemes
    
  • "Real Nappy" schemes
    
  • Schemes that promote to householders the benefits of the Mailing Preference Service, and provide an easy access to registering with the service
    
  • Schemes that provide grants to householders wishing to convert to a "low waste lifestyle" such as using household equipment that produces less waste (e.g.; mulching lawnmowers) or converting to low maintenance/low waste gardens.

Priority 3B Waste Re-Use

• Establish and improve arrangements to divert materials from the waste stream. Examples include -
  
  
  • Repair, remanufacture and upgrade facilities and workshops for household consumer items, including furniture, soft furnishings, IT equipment and white goods
    
  • Partnerships with charity shops and the charity sector to re-use unwanted items