Waste and Recycling Campaign
Richmond and Twickenham Friends of the Earth have been campaigning for more recycling and composting in the London Borough of Richmond and nationally for many years.
We also campaign against the incineration of waste which we believe has serious consequences for public health and undermines recycling and composting.
We worked with the Councils EcoAction team to help set up kerbside (door to door) recycling collections in the Borough and to encourage residents to recycle.
We continue to press for improvements to the current scheme, including weekly collections and the addition of more materials, especially cardboard, kitchen and garden waste and plastics. We also believe that the Council needs to do more to encourage home composting and to provide recycling services to those businesses whose waste it collects.
Richmond‘s recycling and composting rate for the year 2002-3 was 20.5%.
This was better than most other London Boroughs (the highest was Bexley on 22%) but considerably lower than the best performing councils around the country and elsewhere in Europe.
Despite a relatively good recycling performance the average weight of the remaining waste collected per head in Richmond is still the fifth highest in London at 517kg (2002-3). We believe that this shows that the Council needs to invest more in educating Richmond residents about the need to recycle all relevant materials throughout the year and to compost biodegradable waste at home if possible. We favour charging households for the amount of waste they produce to give residents more incentive to recycle and compost.
Incineration
The 79.5% of waste that Richmond residents are not recycling and composting (2002-3 figures) is disposed of by West London Waste Authority, an organisation representing six local authorities in the West London area.
For the last 3 years we have been working with West London Friends of the Earth to let local politicians know that we do not want this waste to be incinerated in the future.
The likely destination is a proposed incinerator that is being built by Grundons at Colnbrook near Slough which will burn a combination of household, radioactive and clinical waste.
Our members have attended many meetings with council officials and councillors at Slough Council and have helped to set up Slough Anti-Incineration Network, an alliance of concerned residents and GPs in Slough.
Recently we have assisted residents around Richmond in writing to their ward councillors to ask them to oppose the signature of an incineration contract.
If you would like to write to your ward councillors to let them know your views you can download a draft letter as a
pdf file.
To check the names and addresses of your ward councillors you can visit the ward finder on Richmond Borough Council's website at:
www.richmond.gov.uk
For further information about why we are opposed to incineration see the West London Friends of the Earth website
www.wlfoet5.demon.co.uk.
For further information about our waste campaign contact
Margaret Salasidis (020 8876 4987)
Relevant websites:
Community Recycling Network - membership and advice for community recycling projects:
www.crn.org.uk
Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs - national waste statistics:
www.defra.gov.uk
Environment Agency - regulation of the waste industry:
www.environment-agency.gov.uk
Friends of the Earth (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) - national waste campaign:
www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/waste
Recycling in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames - collection times, materials etc:
www.richmond.gov.uk
Waste Watch - national charity providing information about waste issues
www.wastewatch.org.uk
