Islington’s recycling rate dropped by one per cent this year

• THE Tribune’s report that Islington’s recycling rate dropped by one per cent this year makes depressing reading, (Recycling rates are going the wrong way, June 17).

That’s even before construction of Islington Council’s ill-considered new incinerator at Edmonton which examples from elsewhere suggest may reduce our rates still further, as private contractors seek to make more profit by burning as much waste as possible, while continuing to generate unnecessary carbon emissions.

Islington’s goals may well be to increase our recycling rate to 32 per cent this year and 40 per cent by 2030 but, as its figures have barely moved for the last decade now, Cllr Rowena Champion, the environment executive member, needs to put real measures in place to achieve those targets.

Her suggestion that improved recycling on estates should be a priority is still as true now as it has been for some time.

So hopefully the council will at last get round to assessing the pilot project Cllr Caroline Russell persuaded them to install on Highbury Quadrant estate a few years ago.

This repurposed the blocks’ refuse chutes for recycling and provided centralised bins for rubbish, rather than vice versa, to encourage residents to recycle more.

If it has worked as well as expected, the scheme should be expanded much more widely across the borough.

Reducing waste collection to fortnightly, while retaining weekly recycling and food waste collections, might be a similar “nudge” towards better performance.

ANDREW MYER
Islington Green Party