What Happens to Waste?We all produce large amounts of waste, either at home or through our businesses and industry. Southwark's waste team collected and processed 138,525 tonnes of waste in 2006/7.
The breakdown of this was as follows
- Household waste = 110,033 tonnes
- Commercial waste = 21,757 tonnes
- Illegally dumped rubbish = 2,296 tonnes
- Other waste = 4,439 tonnes
How we measure waste?
Most of the waste collected from homes and businesses in Southwark passes through the waste transfer station at Manor Place, near the Elephant and Castle. All waste entering or leaving Manor Place is weighed, this enables us to measure the amount of waste and monitor where waste is coming from and going to.
Where does our waste go?
We are increasing the amount of waste that we recycle or incinerate and reducing the amount we send to landfill. We want to be a good neighbour and deal with our waste locally, and at the same time minimise the use of fuel for transporting waste.
In 2006/7, waste was processed as follows:
- 18.4 per cent was recycled and composted
- 43.9 per cent processed at the SELCHP incinerator plant in Lewisham and Allington (Energy from Waste) plant in Kent
- 37.7 per cent was sent to landfill (mainly in Essex)
Currently, we are recycling or composting 20 per cent of our waste. We are improving recycling facilities in Southwark all the time and aim to recycle or compost 20 per cent of domestic waste in 2007/8 and 23.75 per cent in 2008/9.
Southwark Council in partnership with a private waste contractor will build a state of the art waste transfer station at the Old Kent Road gas works site by 2011. The new site will allow us to recycle and compost 50 per cent of household waste by 2020. Find out more about recycling.
A cleaner, greener borough
We want Southwark to be a clean, green and pleasant place to live and work. We pride ourselves on being one of London's cleanest boroughs and recently came third in a survey of cleanliness out of 28 London boroughs.
We take action against people who dispose of their waste illegally. Our enforcement officers issued 3,078 fixed penalty notices last year to people who committed environmental offences, and we prosecuted 27 individuals and businesses for serious offences in the criminal courts.
What you can and can't do with waste
Find out more about
To deal with the growing waste problem we have launched the resource programme to make sure we recycle half of our rubbish by 2020. Visit our resource page for more information. |