Green Party Greater London Assembly member, Darren Johnson, has asked the Mayor for London about the wisdom of tendering for alternatives to landfill, including incineration, without a joint municipal waste management strategy in place by the West London Waste Authority (WLWA).

The authority should have produced a strategy for September 2004, and it is awaited. At the Mayor of London's question time, Mr Johnson wanted to know:

"Do you agree that the West London Waste Authority should produce a joint municipal waste management strategy before instigating the tendering process for the disposal of residual waste?

"In the absence of such a strategy, including information on how waste can best be reduced, reused, recycled and composted and the likely composition of residual waste, how will you be able to assess whether any proposed contract would be detrimental to your Municipal Waste Management Strategy?"

The Mayor, Ken Livingstone, replied:
"Yes, I do agree that West London Waste Authority should have in place a joint municipal waste management strategy before entering into a tendering process for any waste management contract. Further, as per Proposal 101 of my own municipal waste management strategy, West London Waste Authority should have presented me with a joint municipal waste management strategy by the end of September 2004, and I will be taking them to task on this omission.

"In the absence of such a strategy, I will be requesting the very information I would expect to see within their strategy, namely reduction, reuse and recycling targets and the proposed methods to achieve them.

"I will be requesting information on the proposed methods of managing the remainder of their municipal waste and requesting a copy of a robust Best Practicable Environmental Option (BPEO) assessment that identifies the proposed contract arrangements as the BPEO for that waste."

See the West London Waste Authority:
agenda and reports on alternatives to landfill, of 17 September 2004

Sunday, October 31, 2004

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