Action plan agreed to reduce rubbish in West London

The six councils and the West London Waste Authority serving Brent, Ealing, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow and Richmond-upon-Thames have agreed a joint action plan to reduce waste generated by over 21,000 tonnes per year by 2015.

West London residents already recycle and compost over 38% of everything thrown away but this new programme of activities will be focused on encouraging the area’s community of over 1.4 million residents and 80,000 businesses to:

• Avoid waste – for example by smarter food shopping and using leftovers 
• Reduce waste – including by increasing composting at home
• Reuse things – for instance by passing them on to others or donating to charities
• Repair things – rather than replacing them

Attention will be focussed on five key types of things often thrown away – food, textiles and shoes, disposable nappies, electrical items, and furniture. Together, these represent nearly half of the total waste in west London that isn’t recycled.

Chair of West London Waste Authority, Councillor Bassam Mahfouz, said; “We recognise that reducing the waste we generate in west London is not just desirable, it’s essential. The cost of burying waste at landfill sites is escalating and there’s a real drive to reduce carbon emissions. “Over the next few years we want to help make reducing and re-using socially responsible habits in the same way that recycling has become.”

Two major campaigns, one building on the national “Love Food, Hate Waste” scheme, and another encouraging home composting, will be the cornerstones of activity over the next year to help establish waste prevention as a socially responsible habit in the same way that recycling has become.

The six boroughs will also be working with the London Reuse Network and London Waste And Recycling Board to establish a network of reuse facilities in west London.

Other activities will include:

Food Waste

• A range of community events to raise awareness
• Recruiting one school in each borough to become an example of best practice in reducing food waste
• Encouraging an additional 6,600 homes to compost across the six boroughs
• Launching an online guide for businesses on how to reduce food waste

Textiles and Shoes

• Trialling clothes swapping events in each borough

Nappies

• Promoting the advantages of washable nappies

Electrical Items

• Asking residents to place working electrical items in separate containers at Household Reuse and Recycling Centres so they can be re-used

Furniture

• Encouraging residents to make donations to reuse projects
• Encouraging residents to consider buying good quality second hand goods rather than new items
• Council call centres mentioning offering re-use opportunities to people requesting bulky item waste collections
• Working with housing associations to encourage furniture re-use

The Municipal Waste Prevention Strategy for West London from 2011 – 2015 and the action plan to put the ideas in the strategy into place can be found on the strategy page of this website. For more information about waste prevention plase contact us.