New refuse bins and recycling box/bin changes in the pipeline

Over on his Love Lewisham blog, Nigel Tyrell, the Council's head of environment, has outlined his team's plans to make black bins smaller and green bins bigger, in a bid to encourage people to throw away less and recycle more. The new bins are being rolled out over the next few months and if it's affecting your street, you should get a leaflet beforehand. I supported the plans when we scrutinised them on Sustainable Development Committee and think it's a step in the right direction. I suspect they may be more suitable for houses rather than houses converted into flats. More details here.

Smaller wheelie bins will of course also block less of the pavement than bigger wheelie bins, though clearly the optimum is no wheelie bins blocking the pavement! This particular issue is clearly a bug bear of a number of residents I've been speaking to recently and I'd be keen to hear from more people about how you think the Council should approach the issue.

Mattress recycling and clearer labelling on recycling bins: two good new initiatives from the Council's Environment Team

Lewisham's head of environment, Nigel Tyrell has a blog. He very wisely steers clear of politics but uses it to let people know about new initiatives within the team, developments on the lovelewisham site etc. It's well worth adding to your blogroll.

Earlier this week came the welcome announcement that Lewisham is going to start offering a free mattress collection and recycling service, in partnership with a new company, Matt-UK, which has set up near our Landmann's Way waste site. All you have to do is get a sticker from the local library, put it on the mattress and leave it out on the evenign before your normal waste day and it will be taken away. They estimate that they will be able to recycle about 97% of the materials and sell them on to be made into new products, while also avoiding waste going to landfill or (in Lewisham's case) incineration. Sounds like a great idea to me. The icing on the cake would be to have a market to sell on the recyclate in the UK, rather than Asia, but it looks like that isn't possible just yet.

The other good bit of news, which is something I know a number of councillors have flagged up before, is that bins are going to have stickers on them explaining what can/can't be recycled. The ones we had before looked great, but didn't have the necessary detail on them, so many people have been unsure about what can/can't go in their green bin. Hopefully this will help to reduce the recycling contamination rates, which are currently very high in certain parts of the borough and result in a lot of the recyclate collected being incinerated rather than recycled, because it has got food or garden waste mixed in with it. (Pat on the back for Brockley and Ladywell, which our waste officers said had the lowest level of contamination in green bins, when they carried out a waste analysis).

And of course, at the end of last year the battery recycling scheme started at Lewisham libraries and the Christmas tree recycling service is again being well used by residents locally, judging by the numbers of them piling up on the corners of Hilly Fields. You can find details of these and other recycling facilities on the waste and recycling page on the Council's website.

These are all good initiatives and I don't want to belittle the progress that has been made, but Lewisham still has a pretty low recycling rate compared to other boroughs and there is lots more we need to do. One of my bug bears at the moment are the things that you struggle to recycle if you don't have a car to take them to Landmanns Way. Things like broken electrical goods, which you shouldn't put in wheelie bins. Also, the garden waste scheme that ran over the summer, while better than nothing, wasn't much use for us gardeners without cars (and only about half the borough owns a car). I've lost track of the number of residents on the doorstep who've asked when they are getting their brown wheelie bins back (a garden waste collection pilot that took place a couple of years back). I've also got a whole stash of defunct low energy light bulbs in my cellar waiting for an opportunity to recycle them.

The other thing I'm keen to see some progress on is what happens to our collected paper, cardboard and glass. British paper mills won't take paper and cardboard that has been collected together with glass, as happens in Lewisham, so it is generally shipped abroad (China or Malaysia, if I recall correctly) where there is a market for it. Likewise, because the glass has been crushed and the colours mixed, it is unsuitable for reycling back into glass, so is used for aggregate for roads etc. Unfortunately any solution is likely to cost more and/or add an extra layer of complication into recycling for local residents, as it would either involve separate bins for paper and glass, separate recycling days (eg one week paper, one week glass), extra rubbish trucks on the roads collecting them separately or perhaps a return to the street corner recycling bins for glass.

Another thing that residents often ask about, is why tetrapaks and other juice cartons can't be collected in the green bins. Until now, the problem has been that because they are mixed materials (card, plastic and metal), the MRF (materials recycling facility) have been unable to separate them mechanically, as they do with the other types of recycling. I understand that we might be getting some good news about this in a few months, but in the meantime, juice cartons can still be taken to a number of reycling points in the borough, including New Cross Sainsbury and Lewisham Tesco.

What would be next on your shopping list to improve waste and recycling facilities in Lewisham?

Battery recycling available now in Lewisham libraries

A good bit of news this week from the Council's waste team - battery recycling points are now available in libraries across the borough.

Lewisham Council has teamed up with the environmental organisation BatteryBack to encourage residents to dispose of their batteries in a 'BatteryCan'.

In the UK we recycle less than 3 per cent of our batteries, compared to over 50% in Belgium.

Batteries contain various hazardous metals such as lead, mercury, cadmium, zinc, manganese and lithium. It can be damaging to the environment to mix them in with normal domestic waste. And, as the Council press release rightly points out, the materials that can be recovered from the correct treatment of batteries are the very same that are being mined (at great cost) in other parts of the world; therefore battery recycling helps to conserve more natural resources.

And for anyone who thinks that the European Parliament is a completely useless institution that doesn't ever do anything, this has all come about as a result of European legislation, backed by the Greens, back in 2006. The European Directive states that 25 per cent of all batteries placed on the market must be recycled by 2012, rising to 45 per cent by 2016. Currently, the UK recycles less than 3 per cent of portable batteries, with more than 30,000 tonnes of batteries being discarded every year. I'd like to think that this would all have happened in the UK without the European Union, but in this case it definitely seems to have dragged us towards where we need to be far quicker than would otherwise have happened.

Algernon Road does it again!

Well done to the residents of the Loampit Vale end of Algernon Road, who have been crowned the 2008 Lewisham Recycling Champions. They achieved a recycling participation rate of 84%. The scheme itself was a great success with an average increase in recycling through the kerbside collection scheme in nominated streets of 9%.

This is the second time Algernon Road has won the recycling champions award - the Ladywell end of Algernon Road won the first ever recycling champions award in 2006. In 2007 it went to Champion Street in Sydenham, but in 2008, I think a bit of friendly neighbourly rivalry may have kicked in with the 'other' end of Algernon Road determined they could go one better than their neighbours! Well done to all concerned.

Catching up

Lots to catch up on from the past week or so. It already seems ages since I was in Cornwall over the bank holiday weekend!

Shop Local Bags now on sale
The 'Shop Local in Ladywell' bags are now on sale in lots of the shops in Ladywell. They cost £3.50 and seem to be selling well. Em from the drycleaners (pictured) sold her first 20 within a few days and is now on her second batch. There are only 300, so buy now while stocks last!

Good news for Gordonbrock?
Hopefully a rebuild or refurbishment of the school is now back on the cards, following earlier delays. A paper called "Primary Strategy for Change and Primary Capital Programme" went to Mayor & Cabinet last week and the proposals within in it include a new build (or refurbishment) of Gordonbrock Primary School and to expand it from two and a half form entry to 3-form entry. A rebuild of Brockley Primary School and to expand it from one-form entry to two is also planned. Basically, having got money for the BSF (Building Schools for the Future) programme for secondary schools, the Council is now hoping to get a second tranche of government funding bidding for primary schools.

Ladywell Leisure Centre Closed due to discovery of Legionnella Bacteria
You may have read elsewhere that Ladywell Leisure Centre has been temporarily closed due to the discovery of Legionnella, the bacteria that causes Legionnaires disease, being found in the showers. The discovery was made during regular checks and the pool closed as a precautionary measure. Ladywell ward councillors will be watching developments closely and hope that the pool will reopen as soon as it is safe to do so. I would hope that there will be a full investigation into why this has happened and what measures can be taken to prevent it from happening again.

New Playground for Foxborough Gardens?
On Tuesday I met with residents from Foxborough Gardens and representatives from Pinnacle, to discuss building a playground on the estate. Residents have organised a petition and collected 120 signatures calling for a playground. Many of the signatures were collected by the children themselves, and a number of them came along to the meeting. Their request seems perfectly reasonable to me, as there is no playground on the estate at the moment, but a grassy area that could be a suitable location for one. The timing for this may well be fortuitous as Lewisham has recently been awarded £1m to develop play areas. Hopefully a Foxborough Gardens TRA (tenants and residents association) is going to be formed which can then work with Pinnacle to look at ways of taking things forward.

Parking Problems on Marsala Road
On Wednesday I helped residents in Marsala Road collect signatures for a petition calling for a controlled parking zone in the area. There was a consultation on this back in 2005, but at the time there was a very low response rate from the road, and the Council decided not to proceed. The Council's position is that it will only introduce a CPZ where there is a clear demand for it from residents.

Since that time, the parking problems along the street have got progressively worse. Commuters park at one end for Ladywell Station and at the other end for Lewisham Town Centre and station. The introduction of the CPZ on Bertrand, Branscombe and the top part of Algernon Road has increased commuter parking on Marsala and Ellerdale Roads, and as Pinnacle are now cracking now on commuter parking on Viney Road, at residents' request, there is even more competition for spaces on Marsala and Ellerdale Roads. Some residents are putting out cones to reserve a space, which in turn irritates their neighbours.

I've been told a further consultation on CPZs will be carried out in Ladywell in January 2009, but I was also told it would happen last year and it didn't, so the residents' petition may serve as a timely reminder for the Deputy Mayor of the strength of residents' feelings on this issue. The consultation is likely to cover a number of streets, including Chudleigh Road, Malyons Road, Gillian Street as well as Marsala Road and Ellerdale Street. I don't have strong feelings either way about CPZs, and am happy to support whatever the outcome of the consultation is. There appears to be a majority of residents along Marsala Road in favour of a CPZ, but there would also need to be a majority in neighbouring streets in favour in order to proceed.

Ladywell Road to be part of new commercial recycling trial
The recycling team at the Council has successfully applied for funding to set up a pilot commercial recycling scheme using bags instead of bins in Ladywell and Blackheath. They hope to be able to start the scheme in August and will be promoting it in the next couple of weeks. Businesses will still need to pay for collections, but this will be at a rate that is 30% lower than refuse (as with the recycling bin scheme). One of the current barriers to businesses along Ladywell Road recycling, is that not all of them have outside space to store recycling bins. This scheme will enable businesses to use bags rather than bins, and will allows them to pay only for the waste that they produce, as opposed to paying for a standard sized bin each week.

I had a walkabout with officers from the recycling team last year, to discuss recycling with businesses along Ladywell Road. Although businesses were keen to recycle, the cost and bin storage space came up as issues at the time, so I'm delighted that the recycling team are trying to solve this with the pilot scheme. It is also now cheaper for businesses to recycle as one of the Green Group budget amendments from last year was to reduce the cost of commercial recycling (by raising the cost of general waste collection). Hopefully the combination of these two things (bags and lower cost) will enable many more businesses along Ladywell Road to start recycling their cardboard etc.

Ladywell Tavern re-opening soon
I bumped into one of the guys running Ladywell Tavern the other day and he told me that they will be opening very soon, following a few last minute hitches. They are still promising real ales, fine wine and good food, and the chef apparently used to work with Marco Pierre White, so fingers crossed.

New Cafe coming soon on Ladywell Road
Planning permission was granted last week for a new cafe at 48 Ladywell Road (what was the fruit & veg shop). If al goes to plan, the new cafe, which will be called Oscars and will specialise in ice-cream and home-made cakes, will open in about 4 weeks' time. It is being run by a local couple who want their cafe to have a community feel to it.

Ladywell Village Improvement Group AGM
LVIG's AGM is taking place at St Mary's Centre this Thursday (5th June) at 7.30pm. The agenda includes, among other things, the election of officers for the new group, ratification of the constitution, review of the survey results, feedback from Ladywell Fields Fun Day and the formation of working groups. All are welcome.

New Gates for Francis Drake Bowling Club
Brockley Central have beaten me to it on this one, but Francis Drake Bowling Club have got a lovely new gate, which I believe was designed by local artist Heather Burrell, who did the gates at the entrance to Hilly Fields from Eastern Road.

Finally, for those interested, Lewisham Green Drinks is taking place tomorrow (Monday), at Mr Lawrence Wine Bar, 389 Brockley Road, from 7pm onwards.

Launch of Green Party's Waste Manifesto at Pepys Community Recycling Project

Green candidates 'get down and dirty with hot, steamy compost' (or something like that!)

Sian Berry, Green candidate for Mayor of London joined London Assembly member and local councillor Darren Johnson and me at the Pepys Community Recycling Project in Deptford on Friday to launch the Green Party’s waste manifesto for London. Also in the picture is Nico Quiqerel who runs the project, which is based on Grove Street.

Pepys Community Recyling Project is a social enterprise which collects food waste door-to-door from 1,250 homes on the Pepys Estate. Until funding ran out in December it was also collecting dry recyclables door-to-door. Their participation rates are an impressive 30% for food waste, and (until the funding stopped in December) an amazing 50% for dry recyclables, way above Lewisham’s average recycling rates.

I’ve posted before about how being green should be made the easy option, not something that involves lots of sacrifices and the Pepys Community Recycling Scheme is an excellent example of just this. It’s asking a lot to expect people living on the 15th floor of a tower block to lug their recycling down to the green bins outside rather than shove it all down the chute.

As well as encouraging greater recycling participation, the scheme also creates local employment and, by composting the food waste locally, reduces the carbon emissions in transporting waste. The food waste is processed by an accelerated composter and enriched with green waste. The resulting compost is used in the community allotment, the cafe garden and local households.

I would love to see every estate in Lewisham have a composting scheme like this and think we would quickly hit 50% recycling rates if we did. The flipside of course is that it costs more to collect waste door-to-door than just providing estate recycling bins, but Pepys Community Recycling is currently looking at a range of ways to make themselves more financially, as well as environmentally 'sustainable'. They receive a small amount of funding from housing associations and Berkeley Homes (the scheme collects from Aragon Tower), but need more investment to survive and expand.

I think it’s high time that London had a single waste authority so we could look strategically, across the capital, at the best ways of dealing with our waste. We need to think big, in terms of plants to reprocess recyclable materials, to avoid the ridiculous situation we are now in where Greenwich & Lewisham's plastic bottles are sold to China, our paper and cardboard to Malaysia and the only thing that gets properly recycled in the UK is our tin cans. However, we also need a strategy that supports and encourages small, community-focussed schemes like this, rather than transporting our food waste for miles.

Anyway, below is a summary of the Green Party’s waste manifesto for Londoners.

The Green Party’s Waste Plan for London

London to become a Zero Waste city, eliminating waste by:

• treating “waste” as a valuable resource for reuse, recycling or composting;
• investing properly in modern local recycling and composting facilities so as to do away with harmful incineration and landfill;
• favouring products designed for long life and recycling;
• setting challenging targets to increase household recycling and composting to reach European levels of 80% by 2015.

Only by adopting a radical zero waste approach can London phase out dependence on landfill, as required by law, without resorting to a new generation of incinerators.

London needs, above all, a coherent city-wide strategy for managing its waste, coordinated by a proper regional waste authority. Without this, individual boroughs will not be able to solve London’s waste problems by acting individually and in an uncoordinated way.

Reducing waste
1. “Money-back” schemes for the return of glass bottles and other reusable containers to be introduced.
2. Producers to be responsible for their products (and packaging) at end of life.
3. All London public bodies (including borough councils, GLA, police, schools and hospitals), to use buying power to bulk buy refurbished and recycled goods.

Recycling
4. By 2012 all London households to get a weekly doorstep recycling collection which covers the full range of recyclable products, including paper, card, glass, cans, foil, textiles and shoes, plastic, batteries, motor oil, aerosols, mobile phones and toner and ink cartridges.
5. All flats to receive a similar quality home-based recycling service.
6. All litter bins in London’s public places to have separate compartments for paper, glass, cans and plastic.

Composting
7. All London households to be offered home composting bins (and instructions) for green and kitchen waste, with communal composting schemes to be set up on housing estates. Households to receive a weekly collection of green and organic kitchen waste as an alternative to home composting. By 2012 all households to be covered by composting service.
8. London parks to offer local composting services for garden waste (bring garden waste, collect compost for garden).

New building developments
9. All new developments, including commercial and public buildings, to be designed with facilities for storing separated waste until collection.

Reuse and recycling industries
10. Land and investment to be provided to support reprocessing plants in London for the main recyclable materials, to avoid long distance transportation and provide local jobs. London plastics reprocessing plants to be established urgently.
11. Reuse and refurbishment centres, for furniture and electrical goods, such as cookers and washing machines, to be open in each London locality.
12. Local ‘swap’ days to be held regularly.

Handling and transportation of waste
13. London’s future needs for reuse, recycling and composting centres to be assessed urgently so that suitable sites can be protected now from development.
14. Waste to be handled locally, with London becoming self-sufficient.
15. Water and rail transport (for waste) to have financial advantage over road. Much greater use to be made of London’s waterways, and adjacent land, for waste transport and management.

Hazardous waste
16. Transport of nuclear waste through London to end.
17. London boroughs to provide all households with clear instructions and simple arrangements for hazardous waste e.g. paints and solvents.

Incineration
18. No new or replacement incinerators and a strict timetable to be set for phasing out existing incineration.

Public information
19. Public awareness campaigns to expand, with public bodies setting far better example. All boroughs to give telephone information on how to recycle a large variety of items, from Lego bricks to metal hangers to computers.

Of course, if you want this to happen, you need to vote Green on May 1st. Find out more about the voting system here, read our manifesto in full here, or take a look at our London Green Party website or the Sian for Mayor site.

Become a Recycling Champion - come on Ladywell!

From the Council's Press Office. Algernon Road won this in the first year, last year a street Sydenham won it - can we win it again this year in Ladywell?!

Pictured: Geoffrey Thurley, Algernon Road Resident and former recycling champion.

Lewisham Council is launching its annual quest to find the “Best Recycling Street” in the borough.

The Council wants to find dedicated recyclers to champion the recycling cause in their street - to encourage fellow residents to recycle more each week in their street than any other in the borough. Residents can nominate themselves and their road, a section of a road, or even another street. Then all they need to do is speak to their neighbours and persuade them to recycle that bit more!

Councillor Susan Wise, Cabinet Member for Customer Services, said: “Residents have always responded well to recycling schemes and our recycling rates are going up, but there’s so much we could all do to recycle more.

“We want to find the best recycling street in Lewisham - so if you’re already a recycling convert, or even if you’re just getting interested, and you want to get more people to act then get involved and make your nomination.”

Lewisham Council will provide information and a toolkit to make sure residents know what can be recycled. Each streets’ participation rate and the types of materials being collected for recycling will be measured when all the nominations are in, and again six weeks later.

The winning street will be the one that sees the biggest increase in recycling behaviour in terms of the number of people recycling three or more materials, such as paper, cardboard, glass bottle/jars, food/drinks cans and plastic bottles.

A special street sign will be erected on the winning street, proclaiming it to be the ‘Best Recycling Street in Lewisham’. The winner will receive a ‘Recycling Champion’ plaque recognising their efforts. All participants will receive recognition for their efforts and contribution.

Last year’s Recycling Champion street was, by a total coincidence, Champion Crescent in Sydenham, where resident participation increased from 21 per cent to 77 per cent!

Reasons to nominate
Lewisham Council wants to reward the dedication of those unique people who go the extra mile to encourage more recycling where they live because we know it can inspire others.

If you would like to get involved call 020 8314 2245 or 020 8314 2053 now or email recycle@lewisham.gov.uk to request an entry form and more information.

Closing for completed forms/to register interest is 16 May.

Recycling Champions
Environment and Community Development
Wearside Service Centre
Wearside Road
London SE13 7EZ. Recycling in Lewisham
Recycling: Lewisham Council offers a door-to-door recycling collection to all houses in the borough – that’s over 75,000 homes.

What can be recycled:
Glass
Paper
Cans
Cardboard
Plastic bottles

Tetrapak cartons: Cartons such as milk or fruit juice cartons cannot be placed into household recycling bins in Lewisham, however there are special bins where you can leave them to be collected for recycling, at:

- Sainsbury, New Cross Gate
- Sainsbury, Forest Hill
- Laurence House car park, Catford
- Grove Park Bus Garage, Baring Road
- Tesco, Lewisham.

Recycling collection services: Any resident who lives in a house, or a house that has been converted into up to three flats, is entitled to a green recycling box which Lewisham will empty each week. There is also a green bag scheme for garden waste.

Recycling facilities: There are 42 recycling sites in the borough and 350 sites on housing estates. Recycling sites can be located here. Residents can also text RECYCLE and provide their full London postcode to 63131 for recycling services in their street.

Guides to recycling.

Bell Court gets a bigger recycling bin

There still seem to be a number of properties around either without recycling facilities, or a tiny recycling bin compared to the size of the general rubbish bins. Bell Court on Ivy Road was until recently a case in point, but at my request at bigger recycling bin has now been provided. The recycling team are normally quite quick to respond to such requests, providing they have the appropriate bins in stock. If you have too many/not enough green/black bins, you can always call 020 8314 7171 to request another/ask for one to be taken away.

Recycling and rubbish being mixed together on Ermine Road this week

The contents of both green and black wheelie bins were all being thrown into the same refuse van along Ermine Road this week. Mike, who witnessed this, is following up with officers to find out why this happened and to make sure it doesn't happen again. It may have been a new member of staff not properly trained, but it is obviously very frustrating for all those who routinely separate their waste and try to do their bit, only to find that it has all been sent to the incinerator. Please keep separating your waste and recycling - we will get to the bottom of this and try to ensure it doesn't happen again.

Recycling champions needed

Once again the Council is trying to find the best/most improved street for recycling in the borough. Algernon Road in Ladywell won the award last year, thanks to the determined efforts of Geoffrey from Ladywell Society and his neighbours, it would be great if Ladywell could go for a double!

From the Council Press Office "Lewisham Council wants to find the Best Recycling Street in Lewisham. The Council wants to find dedicated recyclers to champion the cause in their nominated street, to encourage their fellow residents to recycle more each week in their street than in any other. You can nominate yourself and your own road (or a section of a road, or another road), for the award. Then you just need to speak to the neighbours and persuade them to recycle that bit more!

Lewisham Council will help by providing information and a toolkit to make sure that all residents know what can be recycled at the kerbside.

Each streets’ participation rate and the types of materials being collected from households for recycling will be measured when all nominations are in, and then measured again 6 weeks later.
The winning street will be the one that sees the biggest improvement in recycling behaviour in terms of the number of people recycling 3 or more materials at the kerbside (from paper, cardboard, glass bottle/jars, food/drinks cans and plastic bottles).

A special street sign will be erected on the winning street, proclaiming it to be the ‘Best Recycling Street in Lewisham’. The winner will receive a ‘Recycling Champion’ plaque recognising their efforts. All participants will receive recognition for their efforts and contribution.

Reasons to nominate a street
Everyone needs to do all they can to reduce, reuse and recycle, for all our futures.
Lewisham Council wants to reward the dedication of those unique people who go the extra mile to encourage more recycling where they live because we know it can inspire others.
So, if you would like to get involved call the Environment and Community Development team now on 020 8314 2245 or e-mail them to request an entry form and return it by Friday 12th October to:

Recycling Champions
Environment and Community Development
Wearside Service Centre
Wearside Road
London SE13 7EZ.
Last year’s Recycling Champion street was Algernon Road in Ladywell, where recycling improved by 17 per cent! "

If you or a neighbours don't have a recycling bin, or need to change a green box for a green bin call Envirocall on 020 8314 7171. Sometimes there is a bit of a wait for a green bin, but let me know if there are any problems and I will chase it up.

Recycling Lightbulbs

From the excellent Ecostreet blog:
"There’s good news for Londoners wishing to recycle their old light bulbs, both incandescent and energy saving. Ryness Lighting and Electrical have taken it upon themselves to educate London residents about the dangers of not disposing of light bulbs safely.

Currently the majority of used light bulbs go to landfill sites, where glass and metal go to waste. More importantly energy saving light bulbs must be recycled as they contain sodium and mercury, which are hazardous materials. If dumped in household waste and allowed to enter our landfill sites the mercury in particular can seep into out drinking water and the habitat around it.

The mercury from a single fluorescent tube is enough to pollute 30,000 litres of water beyond the safe drinking level in the UK.

As London’s only lighting and electrical company we feel that it is our duty to let our customers know the potential harm that is being done to the environment, and offer a service which will allow you act ethically without added hassle or charge.

Effective immediately, Ryness will recycle any of your old light bulbs for free. Just bring your old light bulbs into any Ryness store and they will ensure that they are all correctly disposed of. If you shop with them online, Ryness will arrange a collection of your used light bulbs from your home. You can find out more about this by emailing recycling@ryness.co.uk

Ryness branches:
37 Goodge Street, 45 Old Compton Street, 103 King Street, Hammersmith, 211 Kensington High Street, 6 Kingsgate Parade Victoria, 67 Camden High Street, 54 Fleet Street, 17 Market Place, 43-45 Westbourne Grove, 413 North End Road, 306 High Holborn."

Well done to Ryness for taking a lead on this.

Recycling Bin at Ladywell Station

I noticed en route back from the Climate Camp the other day that the recycling bin at Ladywell Station was jammed with paper and other rubbish, and that there was no general rubbish bin nearby. A blue rubbish bin has now been placed next to the recycling bin (thanks Sam for acting speedily on that) and officers are going to monitor the situation to see if a second paper bin is required, or if this will solve the problem.

(another possible contender for not exactly the most exciting blog post in the world, but there you go.)

Tetra Pak Recycling in Lewisham

I was pleased to learn today that special collection bins to recycle Tetra Paks are to be introduced to 5 sites in Lewisham.

Ruscombe Green blogged last year about a scheme whereby individuals could post their cartons back to Tetra Pak to recycle. More recently I found out about a scheme Tetra Pak are investing in to introduce recycling facilities into various local authorities . I contacted Lewisham's Strategic Waste & Environment Manager to ask if we could also apply for this, but she was already on the case!

The cartons can be recycled through special collection bins at 5 sites in the borough:- Sainsbury, New Cross Gate- Sainsbury, Forest Hill- Laurence House car park, Catford- Grove Park Bus Garage, Baring Road- Tesco, Lewisham. Hopefully a site a bit closer to Brockley or Ladywell will be added soon - by the existing recycling bins outside Brockley Sorting Office might be handy.

It's good that Tetra Pak are putting some money into this, and not before time. Perhaps it is a sign that the packaging industry as a whole is slowly waking up to its environmental responsibilities? A cynic would argue that it's great value PR for a highly profitable industry under increasing pressure to clean up its act.

It is probably still greener and less energy intensive to avoid Tetra Paks where possible, eg by getting your milk delivered in reusable glass bottles and getting bottles of Kent Apple Juice from Hilly Fields Farmers' Market as opposed to cartons of juice from the supermarket, but recycling Tetra Paks is still better than incincerating them, in my opinion (the more we can starve SELCHP, the better).

Further details, from the council's press release:
Each year, UK beverage carton manufacturers produce approximately 55,000 tonnes of paper-based cartons for milk, juice, sauces and other liquid foods/drinks. This equates to around 2.3kg of cartons per household which could be recycled instead of thrown in the rubbish bin. In response, Lewisham Council, in conjunction with Tetra Pak Ltd and the carton industry body ACE UK (Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment), has established carton collection points at key locations around the borough for residents to take their empty cartons to be recycled.

Once collected they can be taken away to be baled and transported to a recycling mill. They can be recycled into a number of different products, ranging from plasterboard liner to high-strength paper bags and envelopes.

Carton Recycling Process
Beverage cartons consist of up to three main materials:
Paperboard (typically 70-90%)
Low density polyethylene (typically 10-25%)
Aluminium foil (about 5%, only in long-life or aseptic packages)

The carton recycling process is essentially quite simple. Baled cartons are dropped into a pulper, similar to a giant domestic food mixer, filled with water and pulped for around 20 minutes. This delaminates the packaging, breaking down the package to produce a grey-brown slurry. The aluminium foil and polyethylene are separated from the fibre, which is recovered to make new paper products.

Wood fibres become shorter and lose some strength every time they are recycled, and can only be recycled about five times. This means that there always has to be an input of virgin material into the papermaking process to maintain quality.

The long, high-strength fibres of these cartons means there is a reduced need to buy virgin pulp. In the UK, the recovered fibre is used to manufacture new high-strength products such as paper carrier bags and envelopes.

A new friend for the cow bins?!

The cow bins at 'Moo Cross' have apparently been a huge success and have now also been rolled out to schools across Lewisham. Yesterday I went on the Lewisham Green Party outing to Yalding Organic Gardens in Kent, and came across a possible friend for the cows.

Introducing, Alys the Rolypig compost bin:

What do you think?!

Rolypig's website says the composter "turns a chore into a pleasure with its simple operation and attractive appearance. Never again will you dump green waste in the dustbin to be expensively transported to the landfill site [incinerator, in Lewisham's case] . . . Just think how much fossil fuel energy is wasted in this way to bury a potentially useful garden fertilizer. . . Every time you roll your Rolypig onto its next flat side, you aerate all the contents automatically, simple, no complicated mechanism."

The price quoted on the Rolypig website is rather steep, but perhaps if the council went the 'whole hog' (sorry) and bulk ordered one for every school, we could get a special deal. Sounds like an excellent way to get children (and adults) converted to the joys of composting! So how about it, Nigel, can we have our very own Lewisham waste-eating urban farms please?!

Green Waste Collection Pilot (brown bins)

As already mentioned by Robert and Andrew , a green waste collection service is currently being trialled in Lewisham. This was one of the Green Party budget amendments accepted by the Mayor earlier this year. The pilot will run for four months and will cover 5,000 households, who will be offered brown wheelie bins and information leaflets explaining what can go in them. There will also be a number of free compost bins available. The aim of the trial is a) to get residents composting what they can in their garden b) use the brown bins for garden waste they can't easily compost themselves (eg hedge clippings). If this proves to be an effective way to reduce the volume of waste in the black bins and increase the borough's recycling rate (yes, apparently it can count towards the recycling target), then funds permitting, the programme could be rolled out to more homes. At least one street in Ladywell ward, Marsala Road, is taking part in the pilot.

There are a number of issues with introducing a third bin that need to be considered, not least space in people's front gardens/on the pavement, as well as the extra lorries on the roads to collect the waste, but hopefully in the longer-term the black bins can be replaced with smaller bins, as is already happening in parts of the borough. We need to look at ways of dramatically increasing the borough's recycling rate as well as reducing the overall volume of waste produced, and introducing a green waste collection service is one way of doing this. Some residents have apparently complained that they don't like the colour of the new bins - guess you can't please everybody all of the time :)

Clean and Green Schools Awards

A number of people have asked me recently whether I am enjoying being a councillor and my answer is generally something along the lines of 'most of the time, yes, but sometimes it's incredibly frustrating'. Yesterday afternoon was definitely one of the fun bits of being a councillor, when together with Deputy Mayor Heidi Alexander I was handing out the awards for the Clean and Green Schools awards.

Before the winners were announced, there was a brilliant and exceedingly loud workshop by Big Beat, a group who make music using percussion instruments made from junk. The councillors and officers present loved it and thought it would be a good to have a session before/after full council meetings, and the children seemed to enjoy it to.

Anyway, congratulations to all the schools who took part and won awards, though special mentions should go to St Stephen's CE and Stillness Infants, who scooped the top two prizes. In addition to recycling, the schools were involved with all sorts of projects including wildlife ponds, composting, reducing waste, freecycling, litter picks and litter surveys, collecting unwanted items to donate to charity, to designing 'rubbish monsters'. Very inspiring. I hope they go home and nag their families to do the same.

Lewisham Council's Budget - all Green amendments accepted

Ute or I will post more comment on last night's council budget meeting soon, but for now, in brief, all our budget proposals were accepted by the Mayor. These included a number of proposals to deliver additional investment in environmental initiatives and practical measures to promote local shops and businesses while reversing £1.6m of proposed cuts in frontline services for Adult Social Care.
"Lewisham's Green Party councillors last night persuaded the Mayor to make radical changes to his budget.

This means extra eco-friendly measures such as school solar panels will become reality, along with ideas to support locally-owned shops.

It also means shelving the mayor's plans to break up a groundbreaking scheme that helps traumatised refugee children to integrate into our schools. The Mayor promised to listen to what the Children and Young People committee recommends.

But the Greens would not have supported the budget if the Mayor had not agreed to make important changes to his plans for services for some of Lewisham's most vulnerable adult residents.

Green Party finance spokesperson Cllr Ute Michel said:

"Last week we said the Mayor should think again about removing adult social care services from many current users. Just hours later he agreed to do just that. Without his promise to consult with an open mind, the Greens could never have voted for this budget.

"Before that change of heart, the review would have been massively biased in favour of cuts, because the council would have had to find £1.8m of savings. Last night that pressure was lifted and now service users have a far better chance of being listened to."

Green group leader Cllr Darren Johnson added:

"We will now fight for the consultation to be not about penny-pinching but about empowering vulnerable residents to lead full lives in our community just like everybody else."

Green Party proposals accepted by the Mayor:

For the environment

* A pilot green waste wheelie bin collection for 5,000 households
* £10,000 ringfenced to promote recycling, energy conservation and other sustainability schemes
* £60,000 to install solar panels and energy efficiency measures in five schools within the Energy Action Zones
* Vouchers for hundreds of families to purchase 'real' nappies to cut down on the huge waste caused by disposables

For local businesses:

* A cheaper recycling service
* Exploring the potential of a high-tech local shoppers' loyalty card
* Thousands of locally-branded cotton shopping bags to be sold by local traders, cutting down on plastic and expressing shoppers' community pride"

Walkabouts

Went on two walkabouts in the ward recently; the first with officers from highways and members of Ladywell Society to discuss various issues around Ladywell Road, including uneven paving, lack of short-stay parking for visitors to shops, the dreaded railings, need for a crossing at the Ladywell Road end of Algernon Road, CPZs etc. Very useful to speak face to face with officers and show them what residents are concerned about. Officers generally agreed with our concerns that railings had a negative impact on the road, hemmed pedestrians in, were a danger to cyclists and encouraged drivers to go faster, but they can't simply remove them. First they have to find money for a safety audit to look at all highways issues on the road, then do a public consultation on its findings and find money to implement any findings after all that. So don't expect any dramatic changes in the near future, but fingers crossed, and I'll keep you posted.

The second walkabout was with officers from the council's recycling and trade waste team. The purpose was two-fold - to see if we could get any local traders to sign up to recycling and to give them information about the Business Environmental Excellence (BEE) scheme. We found that Ladywell traders, without exception were keen to recycle, but what was holding them back was the cost. In theory it costs the same for recyclables as non-recyclable waste, but in practice it costs more as traders have to get a green wheelie bin and red bags. Even taking into account the fact that they would be using less red trade waste bags, shopkeepers were still looking at a potential extra £40/quarter for a green wheelie bin, which is a lot if you are only just making ends meet, which is the case for many small shops. In addition, many shopkeepers don't have a backyard to store a wheelie bin in.
I think we need to rethink the system so that there is no financial disincentive for businesses to recycle, though I'm not sure what the solution is. Lewisham could make business recycling cheaper and raise the cost of non-recyclable waste, but it has to compete with other commercial waste collectors, such as BIFFA and may lose business if it did this. Another option would be to look into having 2 different coloured bags for recyclable and non-recyclable, and potentially the collection of recyclables from businesses could be combined with collecing the recyclables the street sweepers collect, but extra collection rounds still cost more money and it needs to be self-financing.

Waste Strategy

On Wednesday evening I went to the Mayor and Cabinet meeting. The Mayor withdrew the items on the Monson consultation and the lighting PFI contract, but the main reason I was there was to here about the borough’s new waste strategy. The document looks at various options to meet our 20% recycling target for next year, including expanding the collection of kitchen/garden waste and making recycling compulsory.

While the strategy as a whole was approved, the Mayor was somewhat reticent about committing to any particular proposal out of those outlined in the document. He was concerned at the cost of implementing them, in particular the green waste collection. He's right to make sure money is spent effectively, but we will need to spend more money if we are to boost our recycling rates. I'm hopeful that this strategy is something we can get a degree of cross-party consensus on, and the Greens will certainly support any sensible plans to increase recycling in the borough, including compulsory recycling as long as it's implemented fairly and alongside a publicity campaign and making sure that everyone has access to recycling facilities.