Climate and Haringey’s Waste – 30th Jan
In a Climate Emergency are we doing everything we can?
Haringey's waste journey
Date and Time: 30th Jan 2025 – 6.30pm to 8.30pm
Venue: Alexandra House,10 Station Rd, Wood Green, N22 7TR
(2mins from Wood Green on Picadilly line)
Speakers and Agenda – TBA
Tickets from Ticket Tailor here.
Come along to hear what Haringey Council, the North London Waste Authority and the Government are doing to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and tell people about what you are doing and ideas you have.
Climate Issues
Zero Waste Cities details how to deal with waste with minimum carbon emissions with its key principles (p12):
UK Government Actions
31 March 2025 Simpler Recycling (latest) Businesses and relevant non-domestic premises must collect glass, metal, plastic, paper and card, and food waste. “most households and workplaces will need 4 containers for:
– residual (non-recyclable) waste
– food waste (mixed with garden waste if appropriate)
– paper and card
– all other dry recyclable materials (plastic, metal and glass)
These may be various container types, including bags, bins or stackable boxes.”
April 2025 – Packaging producers will pay waste authorities according to their excess packaging. (Extended Producer Responsibility – EPR). Money will be paid to waste authorities towards the net costs of collecting, managing, recycling and disposing of household packaging waste.
By 31 March 2026 Local authorities must collect glass, metal, plastic, paper and card, and (weekly) food waste. Note there will be an exemption to allow the co-collection of food and garden waste, ideally with paper and card separate to other items.
By 31 March 2027 Kerbside plastic film collections from businesses and relevant non-domestic premises, and households will be introduced.
October 2027 (intended launch) – Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) for plastic and metal drinks containers
“Of all littering measured by Keep Britain Tidy’s 2020 composition analysis, 55% of litter by volume was plastic and metal drinks containers.” and “Introducing a Deposit Return Scheme will create around 4,000 new jobs across the UK (based on a report by The Countryside Charity) and will bring investment in infrastructure required to deliver the scheme.”
Note that, when DRS plastic and metal drinks containers go to specialist collectors/processors and when there is less packaging, if producers reduce superfluous packaging, the amount going to NLWA’s recycling contractor will go down. Similarly the amount of plastic, metal and packaging in the residual (called ‘black bag’) waste will go down, so there will be less waste to incinerate.
London Targets
The Mayor is required under the Greater London Authority Act 2007 to produce a municipal waste management strategy and for there to be a London Waste and Recycling Board (LWARB), since renamed as ReLondon, that works with The Mayor.
The Mayor requires a Reduce and Recycling Plan (RRP) for every Borough in London, with targets for recycling and details of the measures the Borough plans to take to meet the Mayors targets. From the May 2018 London Environmental Strategy (p309).
Note that the ‘Municipal’ targets include waste of a similar composition to household recycling, whilst the higher targets include other commercial waste, such as Industrial, Construction, Demolition and Excavation etc.
North London Waste Authority
The North London Waste Authority manages the waste from these 7 boroughs, coming to about a quarter of all London’s rubbish and recycling, centred on the ‘Eco-Park’ at Edmonton:
April 2024 – A new Reuse and Recovery Centre (RRC) was opened at the Edmonton Eco-Park at 1 Lee Park WAy, N18 3BJ. This is part of the Resource Recovery Facility (RRF) complex, designed to also have a Recycling and Fuel Preparation Facility to remove materials suitable for recycling or reuse such as wood, plastics and metal and send them for processing before sending the rest to the incinerator on the site.
23rd Jan 2025 – North London Waste Authority (NLWA) is asking for responses to their draft North London Joint Waste strategy on how they will manage waste through to 2040. Start here . The Targets in the consultation are:
• Reduce avoidable food waste by 50%
• Reduce recyclable material in residual waste by 50%
• Double the proportion of material reused at our Reuse and Recycling Centres
They say they will “actively monitor new technologies for sorting and treating waste with a view to improving our infrastructure and decarbonising the waste stream”
And “produce new analysis examining the carbon impact of the waste produced in north London.”
2027 – The replacement incinerator is expected to be in operation after several delays.
Haringey's waste and recycling
Haringey’s ‘Destination 50%’
Haringey wants to increase its recycling rates from about 30% to 50% by 2030 with its Destination 50% programme. and the Haringey submission to the Mayor of London’s Reduce and Recycle Plan (RRP) says “A key element of this is to ensure services are delivered in accordance with Simpler Recycling, and using modelling to determine the best collection system, from 2027 when our current contract expires with Veolia.”
Give Haringey your ideas to do this:
– Tell us your recycling ideas here
– Input to the NLWA North London Joint Waste Strategy by 23rd Jan 2025 here
Find your Reuse and recycling centres, banks, donations and collections
Details of Haringey’s reuse and recycling centre, electrical and clothing banks and places to donate unwanted items are here.
To discover where recycling goes currently click on NLWA’s ‘Where does my recycling go?‘
Some Haringey initiatives from the RRP submission:
HGY2 Improved recycling at Council buildings, libraries and community centres
All 9 of Haringey’s libraries have recycling facilities for:
o Household batteries
3 libraries also have printer cartridge facilities.
The following materials will be implemented at all libraries in July/ August
o Keys
o Printer cartridges
o Light bulbs
o Vapes
Two of the larger libraries will also have book and textiles recycling containers
HGY6 – Trade waste The commercial service promotes recycling in its service offer to schools and businesses and recycling collections are offered at a lower price than residual collections to encourage and maximise recycling.
HGY7 – Estates a workplan to target estates without food waste. This work is due to start in Autumn 2024 as resources are not available until then
HGY8 – HMOs – a review of the provision of recycling containment to ensure residents have the facilities to recycle.
HGY9 – Textiles – worked with TRAID in September 2023 on a home collection service
HGY18 – Corporate Plan In 2023 we invited reuse/ repair organisations to apply for funding to provide a feasibility study for running a reuse/ repair hub in the Borough. Haringey Fixers and Restart were the successful applicants, They have provided a preliminary report, and we are now working on the next steps and looking for suitable locations as the one initially earmarked is not available long-term
HGY19 – NLWA waste reduction includes:
- Reusable period products. The ‘Reduce, Reuse, Your Cycle’ campaign was designed through the application of behavioural science and seeks to increase the purchase and use of reusable period products in north London. The campaign aims to decrease the purchase and use of single-use period products, leading to a reduction in the generation of single-use plastic waste
- Bring it……. a campaign that aims to encourage residents to use reusable coffee cups bottles, bags, and containers to reduce single-use plastic.
- Reusable nappy subsidy.In 2023/24, NLWA increased the reusable nappy vouchers available for north London parents/carers to £70 per baby.
HGY20 – Veolia Fleet ” We have completed a full review of the options to move to EVs or HVO as an intermediatory fuel. This has included a detailed assessment of the wider infrastructure requirements to transition to a full EV fleet at our current depot” (decision was due in October/November 2024)
For Haringey actions on waste and recycling note the new facilities in libraries across the borough here, for many everyday items containing valuable materials that can be reused or recycled
Further Haringey initiatives:
Christmas Tree Recycling here