GCSE Geography | Waste Management in London (UK City Study: London 9)

With its population of almost 9 million, and 20 million visitors per year, London generates over 7 million tonnes of waste - this comes from domestic homes, public buildings and business premises. London has a target of recycling 65% of waste by 2030, and aims to become a 'zero waste city' by 2026 where no biodegradable or recyclable waste will be sent to landfill.

Sending waste to landfill

Despite these ambitious targets there is still a small amount of London's waste that currently ends up in landfill sites - around 5%, which has halved in recent years, and is lower than the UK average of 7%.

Mucking Marshes in east London was the main landfill site for London's waste - orange barges would travel along the River Thames daily transporting huge piles of rubbish to the site, which was once the largest landfill in Europe - it was so large that it could be seen from space! However, it closed in 2010 and marked a change in focus for waste management in London, with the realisation that we were running out of space around London to bury waste.

At the moment there are a number of landfill sites within 20 miles from central London which receive waste from the capital - they vary in size but can process around 700,000 tonnes of waste a year - however, they are running out of space and many only have a few years capacity left before they are completely full have cease to be operational. In the past a new landfill site would have opened nearby, however there is less and less land available for this, and most local councils are concerned about the environmental impact of these sites anyway.

Landfill sites (like the one pictured below) are controversial - local residents often complain about the smell of rotting waste, as well as the number of lorries on local roads accessing the site, and the visual impact. Transporting the waste to landfill releases CO₂, decomposing waste releases methane (a greenhouse gas) and there are issues with water and soil contamination. Many argue that burying rubbish also wastes resources that could be reused or recycled, or even used to generate energy.

Burning waste

Currently around 50% of London's waste is incinerated - and much of this is used to generate electricity through Energy from Waste (EfW).

The London Waste Ecopark in Edmonton, North London (pictured below) is an EfW facility that burns waste and converts it into power for the National Grid - it powers the equivalent of 24,000 homes, and has saved over 21 million tonnes of waste going to landfill over the last 40 years. There are plans to replace the generator to enable it to increase its electricity generation capacity to 5 times its current capacity. There are also plans to open a solar powered Energy Recovery Facility that aims to recycle 135,000 tonnes of recyclable material every year.

Although burning waste reduces the issue of sending waste to landfill, it does produce significant amounts of CO₂, although this could reduce in the future with better technologies and carbon capture. There is also a lot of recyclable materials burnt as residents and businesses don't always sort their waste properly, and some of this recyclable waste, such as plastics, creates toxic fumes went burnt. A lack of food waste collection across some boroughs also means that food waste also gets burnt which could have been used for compost or biogas.

Reducing waste

Greater London has a target of becoming a 'zero waste city' by 2026 - this means that nothing ends up in landfill that could have been recycled or composted. As part of this each borough has had to come up with a Reduction and Recycling Plan (RRP) to achieve this target, for example working with schools and community groups to get people to change their behaviour around waste.

There are also city-wide strategies - such as the aim to reduce single use plastics. Research showed that on average people in London buy at least 3 bottles of water a week, totally around 175 bottles per year. Cafes, restaurants and pubs have been encouraged to allow customers to fill up their water bottles for free, and Thames Water, in collaboration with the Mayor of London, has installed 100 fountains across London (like those pictured below). These are located in public spaces, stations, and busy areas, to encourage reusable bottle refills which should reduce plastic waste. This has cost £5 million to implement and Thames Water have committed to maintaining these public fountains for 25 years.

Recycling waste

London has a target of recycling 65% of waste by 2030 - however current recycling rates in the city are just half of that at 32.7%, compared to England's average rate of 42.5%. Recycling rates also vary widely across the city - Tower Hamlets, one of London's most deprived boroughs, recycles less than 1/5th of waste, whereas the more affluent borough of Bromley recycles almost half its waste. One of the reasons that recycling rates are so low is that many people in London live in apartment blocks with shared waste bins which often lack adequate recycling facilities. One way to address this is by increasing the number of recycling bins on the streets of London (such as those in the photo below).

In recent years there has been an increase in community groups embracing the circular economy - which is an economic model to minimise waste, maximise the use of resources and promote sustainability. The circular economy is all about designing products carefully, reusing, and repurposing products to extend their life span, keeping resources in use for as long as possible. In London there are various community recycling projects, along with repair workshops, second-hand pop up shops and 'libraries of things' where people can borrow all sorts of items that they might only need to use once.