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 55
is still treated as waste rather than as a resource of materials and energy,
and recycling collections have not been developed in tandem with
reprocessing infrastructure and recycled material industries.
3.89 In 1998, research by Ecologika asserted that ’there is clearly the potential
for a significant increase in the capture rate of London’s recycled materials
and an opportunity for reprocessing industries to be established in and
around London‘ 118 . To evidence this claim in the significantly different
economic environment that has developed over the last decade, the GLA
and LDA commissioned research 119 into the ways in which the Mayor and
LDA could intervene to develop appropriate reprocessing infrastructure
within London. The report concludes that there are specific opportunities
for London to develop recycling and reprocessing infrastructure within
London and in partnership with surrounding regions. Three approaches
were recommended for London:
1 Developing reprocessing infrastructure with a relatively small land-use
requirement and low water demands. The development in the London
Borough of Barking and Dagenham, in 2008, of the first plastics
reprocessing facility in the UK to produce food-grade PET and the
first facility in the world to produce food-grade HDPE, by Closed Loop
London, is an example of where this approach has already been
successful in London.
2 Supporting the development of innovative down-cycling technologies
and markets for these products, such as the successful Day Aggregates
glass recycling facility in the London Borough of Greenwich. Other
opportunities may include mixed paper for use in insulation materials,
such as Excel Fibres in South Wales, or mixed plastics for use in
drainage material, such as Econoplas in Scarborough. Whilst this
element of the recycling industry may not be regarded with the highest
priority for London because the focus should always be on high value
applications, it should be recognised as having an important role to
play.
3 Sorting and cleaning materials to produce a higher quality - and thus
higher price - output for sale to reprocessors may enable a greater
proportion of material to be suitable for domestic reprocessing. This
is important because it would reduce reliance on potentially volatile
global markets and reduce the distances that materials are transported.
Getting a higher price for every tonne of material collected in London
would additionally bring greater revenues to those collecting and
managing the materials and stimulate further investment.
3.90 Increasingly (and particularly in the municipal waste stream) materials are
being collected co-mingled and sorted for recycling using Materials