Draft Business Waste Strategy PDF - london.gov.uk - Greater ...

Making waste work in London The Mayor’s Draft Business Waste Management Strategy Mayor of London 43
3C Increasing awareness
and providing information
It’s not what you know, it’s who you know
3.48 Making it easier for businesses to recycle by supporting the development
of convenient and cost effective recycling services should stimulate
demand for those services. However, while demand is low, there is
little incentive for the waste management industry to develop and
expand their waste management services in line with the waste hierarchy.
This is particularly the case for the private sector, which does not have
the same legislative drivers as local authorities and is generally driven by
profit and therefore by demand. During the London Assembly
consultation, representatives from the waste industry argued that the lack
of business recycling services in London is a failure of market demand
not market supply.
3.49 To inform research undertaken for the London Assembly, a number
of small businesses were asked what drove their current approach to
their waste management. For those that were doing nothing or little,
the responses (Table 3) ranged from a lack of services to costs.
Table 3: Reasons given by businesses that recycle little or no waste,
for their inactivity
Reason % *
No services provided by my local authority 42
Will cost us money 20
Don’t know 18
No time (either to look into it or to actually separate their wastes) 12
No space 10
Source: SMEs and Sustainable Waste Management in London Research Findings, GfK Business,
July 2007, page 40
*Note: Respondents could give more than one reason.
3.50 There are multiple funding routes for environmental initiatives (such
as the European Union, UK government, local authorities, business
associations and non-governmental organisations), which have led to a
fragmented series of initiatives addressing business waste management
and business environmental performance. The LDA found that over 20
organisations are working in each London borough to provide
‘sustainability’ information and advice to London’s businesses, often
independently of each other 96 . As a result, the Environment Agency
believe that the majority of small businesses do not know where to turn
for information and advice on environmental issues 97 . It is crucial that
businesses are able to easily access advice and information about services