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Geetie Singh outside her pub |
Businesses are throwing away a hole lot of waste
Pub owner hires recycling firm as ‘green’ rubbish is sent to landfill
HUNDREDS of tons of Islington business waste which should be recycled is going into holes in the ground, a leading environmentalist warned this week.
An appalled Geetie Singh, a member of the London Mayor’s Food and Ecology Group, has decided to take a principled stand and pay for a recycling firm to remove her pub’s waste.
Ms Singh, owner of Britain’s first organic pub, Duke of Cambridge in St Peter’s Street, Angel, hit out after a new report claimed that Islington businesses are recycling less than one per cent of all their waste.
While the Government has set targets for domestic recycling there are none for business waste. Much of the material from Islington pubs and restaurants, including kitchen waste, cardboard, plastics and hundreds of thousands of bottles, ends up in landfill sites in Essex and Hertfordshire which are fast filling up.
She said: “We have one wheelie bin of food waste and two bins of glass every day that need recycling. We have another wheelie bin of other waste every other day. Multiply that with hundreds of other pubs and restaurants and you get a huge amount of waste which should be recycled but which is not.
“Islington Council say they are interested in recycling business waste, but putting those words into action is a different matter.”
She called for a single waste authority for London, as advocated by London Mayor Ken Livingstone.
“It would give Ken the power to organise the collection of London waste in a strategic way,” she said. “The government said no to that, which is partly why there is little interest in recycling business waste anywhere in the capital.”
Labour environment spokesman Councillor James Murray said: “I’ve got lots of ideas about improving recycling in Islington, and I’d be happy to share them. But it does make you wonder exactly what we’re paying the executive members £44,000 each for when they have no plans of their own.”
A Labour report claims recycling rates in Islington are approximately 26 per cent of residential waste, but less than one per cent of business waste.
Lib Dem environment spokeswoman Councillor Lucy Watt said: “Perhaps Cllr Murray would suggest that his government provide more incentives for recycling business waste. ICSL is recycling some business waste under a paid-for service and we are hoping to increase the service.”
Islington’s household recycling rate reached an all-time high of 26 per cent in January, according to Cllr Watt.
Islington had the fastest improving recycling rate of any London borough in 2005-6.
The increase was due to the council expanding and improving recycling services for kitchen and green waste, and extending services to estates, student halls of residence and flats above shops.
A council door-knocking campaign is encouraging residents to recycle even more. Uniformed staff are visiting homes on estates and flats above shops to promote recycling.
Cllr Watt said: “Residents are making a huge difference to the amount we recycle – reducing the amount of material we send to landfill.
“But not everyone recycles everything they could. We see education as key to making real and sustainable change to people’s behaviour. So I’m delighted this campaign is bringing the green message quite literally to people’s doorsteps.
“With recycling made this easy, there’s really no excuse not to do your bit.” |
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