London Wider Waste Strategy - London - Greater London Authority

incorporate innovative waste transport mechanisms such as vacuum powered
chutes to minimise space requirements, and allow segregation at source.
These should include sufficient capacity for additional segregation in the
future, and ensure that clinical, non-clinical wastes, and special wastes are
handled in such a way as to prevent any risk of cross contamination.
Local Authority Collection and Disposal
Background
4.235. Local Authorities collect some 4.4 million tonnes of municipal wastes per annum in
London, of which approximately 1 million tonnes is non-household wastes. This
includes commercial wastes and industrial wastes.
4.236. The aim of this part of the study was to obtain further information on the nonhousehold
element of municipal solid wastes. The objectives were to consult with Local
Authorities to establish tonnages, management, customer range and, where possible,
future intentions with regard to the provision of this service.
4.237. Questionnaires were sent to all 37 of London’s waste collection authorities (WCAs),
waste disposal authorities (WDAs) and unitary authorities (UAs) asking about their
collection and disposal of commercial and industrial wastes. Responses were received
from 11 of the 21 WCAs, seven of the 12 UAs, and all of the four WDAs, which is a 60%
response rate. A detailed description of the questionnaire development, methodology
and analysis is presented in Appendix E. A summary of the main findings is set out
below.
Waste Collection and Disposal
4.238. The majority of authorities collect commercial and industrial wastes mixed with
household waste, with just a few collecting separately. Just over half of the
respondents collect industrial wastes. Only a minority collected commercial recyclables.
From the respondents, the collection services operated by the UAs were of a larger scale
than the WCAs and our data indicates that the greatest proportion of wastes are from
offices and retail, followed by hospitality, although there were some anomalies here with
one authority’s commercial wastes originating very largely from local authority and
government premises.
4.239. WCAs seem to favour direct service organisations (DSOs) for the collection of their
commercial and industrial wastes whilst WDAs and UAs favour private waste
management companies for their collection and disposal of commercial and industrial
wastes. All intended to continue using the same arrangement. With regard to contracts
with private companies, WCAs tended to have the shortest contracts with private
companies, WDAs the longest and UAs in-between.
4.240. With regard to collection, most respondents thought that their current arrangement was
the most beneficial way of providing a collection service. However, there were some
anomalies with regard to disposal with several respondents suggesting that their current
way of operating may not necessarily provide the most beneficial service in all regards.
Recommendation 38: It is recommended that consideration should be given in London
to the way in which data on commercial and industrial waste arisings and the
wastes handled – by customer type, customer size, and waste composition,
could be obtained on a regular basis.
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