The North London Waste Authority (NLWA) says that as tackling the “climate emergency” becomes ever more urgent, so does the need for the UK economy to become circular and its new plan, “Preserving Resources, Driving Change”, sets out how.
Actions to 2025 include significant financial support for community groups that are reducing waste at the grassroots; innovating to recycle more difficult items such as carpets; influencing businesses to design out waste; and campaigning for the government to ban more avoidable and unecological waste.
NLWA is responsible for dealing with household recycling and waste across the seven north London boroughs of Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Hackney, Haringey, Islington and Waltham Forest.
To inform the plan’s priorities, in 2022, NLWA says it met with representatives of 35 organisations including environmental charities and NGOs.
As part of the Preserving Resources, Driving Change plan the NLWA’s North London Community Fund will more than double in 2023-4 to £250,000.
Reviewing future options for NLWA’s network of household Reuse and Recycling Centres (RRCs) and researching effective options to support residents who want to switch to using reusable period products are also highlighted in the plan.
Our work to influence business and the government will also help create much-needed changes across the UK and beyond.
The plan also calls for the NLWA to find ways to recycle more difficult-to-recycle items including carpets and hard plastics such as toys and crates, support trials in the boroughs such as food waste recycling services for residents living in flats above shops and opening a brand new, architect-designed education centre at Edmonton EcoPark in Enfield for schools, local interest groups and residents.
The NLWA also says it will work with north London primary schools to help them develop waste prevention and recycling education and embed it into their curriculums as part of the plan.
Commenting on the plan, Cllr Clyde Loakes, the chair of NLWA, said: “By reusing, repairing and recycling on a greater scale throughout north London, we can not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prevent the loss of precious resources but also the major costs associated with the disposal of short-lived, unecological products.
“NLWA’s new plan will put communities and people at the very heart of the circular economy and waste prevention, giving them more funding, more services and more hope. Our work to influence business and the government will also help create much-needed changes across the UK and beyond.
“As a country, we need to reimagine waste. With Government incentives in place, the UK could build thriving reuse and repair industries. Encouraging investment in the UK manufacturing of products made with recycled content would also supercharge the transition to a circular economy, bringing scores of green jobs and industries.”
