London Wider Waste Strategy - London - Greater London Authority

4.157. The availability of multiple funding routes for environmental initiatives (including EU,
national Government, local authority, business associations, NGOs and universities) has
tended to lead to a fragmented series of initiatives addressing business waste
management and business environmental performance more generally.
Recommendation 20: It is recommended that encouragement should be given to
harmonise business waste management activities, and for future funding
support to be directed to this end. The aim should be for fewer, and properly
resourced initiatives with a wider out-reach promoting a consistent message.
Collection and transport systems
4.158. Consultations yielded relatively little evidence of intervention in improving collection,
transport and transfer systems for wider wastes, in contrast to the substantial funding
and advice through London Waste Action for improved collection systems for
household waste. For major waste generators such as the printing industry businesses
that supply Grosvenor Waste Management’s paper recycling plant (see below under
Reprocessing), collection systems are unlikely to be an obstacle. For SMEs which
generate relatively small volumes of various waste types, and sometimes have limited
storage available on site, the costs and effort associated with separating waste streams
for recycling can be a deterrent. Economies of scale such as the participation of clusters
of neighbouring businesses in a recycling service suggest a need for targeted recruiting
of businesses. Mixed dry recyclables systems, which avoid the need for source
separation by processing at a central separation facility, may also assist SMEs to
participate.
4.159. Collection and transport issues are a particular challenge for recyclable waste streams
that arise from a large number of dispersed SMEs, such as bottles and kitchen wastes
from restaurants and bars. Kitchen wastes present additional challenges including the
need to avoid contamination by other materials, the need for regular collections and
issues such as odour, flies and vermin. One positive feature of the licensed premises
sector is the presence of business chains and franchises which provide opportunities to
develop large collection contracts and deliver consistent training to staff and
standardised on-site facilities.
4.160. A recent initiative supported by WRAP in West Oxfordshire has trialled glass collection
from licensed premises in rural areas, investigating barriers and possible solutions (see
case study below). The trial ran from March 2002 to March 2004 and a report is
available 23 . The initiative has now been extended to other areas.
4.161. Westminster City Council has provided a mixed glass recycling collection from bars and
restaurants in the West End of London for at least 10 years. An officer at the
Westminster City Council commented that the scheme is currently ‘over-subscribed’ with
around 130 businesses participating, most of which are licensed premises.
4.162. The London Remade glass eco-site project has also worked to develop the glass
collection infrastructure in London. Berryman’s, the UK’s largest specialist glass
collection company, already collect a large volume of glass from licensed premises and
bottle banks in London and transport it to their Yorkshire plant for remanufacture of
bottles. Although this involves greater transport than reprocessing for local applications
23 Glass Goes Green – A Project to Identify the Legal and Commercial Barriers to Glass Recycling in a
Representative Sample Of Licensed Premises Within The Geographical Region Of West Oxfordshire.
Centre for Environmental Studies, Oxford Brookes University, for WRAP. March 2004.
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