21 November 2008

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Recycle for London

We all try and make some sort of resolution for a forthcoming new year; it may be to get home before the children are in bed, to do a few more household chores or the quit the rat race and fulfil a lifetime's ambition. Whatever you promise yourself, you can ensure that you resolve to dispose of all your Christmas debris in the best possible way!

The Christmas fall-out

During the festive period, Londoners send 123 million greetings cards and use enough wrapping paper to cover Hyde Park four times over.

They also consume a mind boggling amount of food, including 1.5 million jars of pickles and 800,000 jars of cranberry sauce.

In addition, about 980,000 Christmas trees are put up in people's houses each year and 30 per cent more bottles and cans are thrown away than at any other time of the year.

Recycling all our cards, wrapping paper, bottles, cans and even Christmas trees will mean less waste going into landfill sites that are filling up fast. London recently came bottom in the country for recycling and composting household waste. Just 21 per cent of the capital's waste was recycled last year, a 3 per cent rise on 2004, but still under the government's 25 per cent target. This compares to the East Midlands, which is the greenest region in the country, where 33 per cent of its waste is recycled.

A year-round problem

Londoners produce 3.4 million tonnes of rubbish a year, which is enough to fill Canary Wharf tower every 10 days. Yet waste analysis has found that 60% of what we throw out could be recycled. Despite this, the problem is getting worse as we buy more packaged and disposable goods. Most of London's rubbish is disposed of by burial in landfill sites, or incineration, both of which have a significant impact on our environment.

The government has recently named 10 English councils or local authority partnerships as centres of excellence in providing recycling and waste management services. The London Borough of Bexley and the London Borough of Sutton both won recognition for their recycling and waste divisions, and were awarded Beacon status.

Find your local recycling facilities

Find out what you can and can't recycle