London’s Recycling – The Battle of the Boroughs

London is seen as one big city, but really it’s a mish-mash of smaller ones, buried under the heading ‘boroughs’. Londoners tend not to care too much about that sort of definition. Whether you’re proud to live in South Ken or Shoreditch, you’ll likely have to go everywhere else at some point. Your borough is your base, but not your entire city.

This inclusive attitude seems admirable, but we may well be missing a trick. You’ve surely heard by now – usually when the Daily Mail takes a school to task for banning sports day –  that competition is healthy. Well, there’s a part of London life that’s looking decidedly unhealthy, and it’s time to encourage a bit of inter-borough battling when it comes to our bins.

Recycling in the city

Recycling rates in the capital are some of our country’s lowest. For a city that’s supposed to be a world leader, it’s pretty appalling. Only one London Borough, Bexley, hits the EU recycling target of 50% set in 2014. Unless you’re talking about the likelihood of Trump getting impeached (please, God), 1 in 32 is a terrible statistic.

When you compare London to the rest of England, even our best ranks only 45th. Our worst, Lewisham, is second from the bottom, recycling a measly 17%. In fact, almost 90% of London is below the national average. What do places like Oxford and Stockport have that we don’t? And given the EU hopes to increase recycling rates to 65% by 2030, how do we get it fast? With such a dismal set of scores in mind, it seems laughable that last year Boris Johnson planned to re-imagine London as the Green Capital of Europe. Just trying to get us up to the national average of 45%, seems impossible.

Of course, we may not be part of the EU by 2030, but we should still show them that London is capable of not only meeting, but besting, their criteria. At this point in time, the issue of recycling is playing out on the world stage and London seems to have forgotten its lines.

Count your bins lucky

None of this should really come as a surprise: we’ve already proven ourselves terrible with food disposal and sewers. You’d think the horrors of fatbergs blocking up London would be hard to forget, yet nothing changes. The government isn’t sure why Londoners are so careless, though increased multilingualism and lack of education are suggested factors. A few have cited laziness, which is certainly something we’ve heard before.

People just can’t be bothered to follow ever-growing guidelines about what to put where. Baffling, given there are far more rigorous recycling rules out there. Yokohama, Tokyo’s second city, has 10 categories to sort recycling in. Think that’s unbelievable? Kamikatsu (also in Japan) recently upped its 34 categories to 44 and has become the first zero-waste town. When you imagine separating your stuff into that many bins, rinsing that tin can doesn’t seem such a big ask, does it?

Whatever the reason for our indifference, we need to change our ways. A fight to prove your borough better may well be the key. Who wouldn’t love to show Bexley a thing or two when it comes to being a clean, green recycling machine? Imagine the satisfaction in Hackney as they add an extra 0.1% and show Kensington and Chelsea who’s the boss of bins. Given the amount of rubbish they spew, it’s unsurprising the politician’s home of Westminster is so low down – but how pleasant would it be to push them right to the bottom where they belong?

Take a look at our table of London Boroughs, find where you rank, then find the one’s you have to beat. Do it for local pride, London life and everyone else who’s doing their bit all along. The world will thank you for it.

The Table of Terror

Rank out of 352	Local Authority	Recycling, Reuse and Composting Rates
45	Bexley	54.0%
111	Bromley	48.0%
147	Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames	45.7%
154	Harrow	45.1%
168	Hillingdon	43.8%
206	Richmond upon Thames	41.2%
223	Ealing	40.1%
226	Croydon	39.9%
240	Enfield	38.5%
246	Barnet	38.0%
251	Sutton	37.6%
252	Merton	37.5%
255	Haringey	37.3%
270	Waltham Forest	35.5%
273	Brent	35.2%
279	Southwark	34.6%
280	Hounslow	34.5%
286	Greenwich	34.3%
303	Islington	32.8%
306	Havering	32.4%
321	Redbridge	28.7%
322	Lambeth	28.3%
323	Tower Hamlets	28.1%
333	Camden	26.3%
336	Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea	25.3%
337	Hackney	25.3%
343	Barking and Dagenham	23.4%
346	Hammersmith and Fulham	20.7%
347	Wandsworth	20.7%
349	Westminster City Council	19.1%
350	Newham	17.2%
351	Lewisham	17.1%

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