New figures have revealed how much household waste is recycled, reused or composted in each council area in south east London.
The data, made of local authority collected waste stastics, breaks it down by percentage.
It comes as Boris Johnson has been accused of having “completely lost the plastic plot” after telling schoolchildren that recycling “doesn’t work” as a means to ease the climate crisis.
The Recycling Association reacted with astonishment at the Prime Minister’s remarks during a Downing Street press conference for pupils on Monday, saying they were “very disappointing”.
No 10 had to tell the public to continue recycling after Mr Johnson said “recycling isn’t the answer” and stressed the need to reduce the amount of plastic that is used.
“It doesn’t begin to address the problem. You can only recycle plastic a couple of times, really. What you’ve got to do is stop the production of plastic,” he said.
“The recycling thing is a red herring,” the Prime Minister added after naming and shaming Coca-Cola as being one of 12 corporations “producing the overwhelming bulk of the world’s plastics”.
Appearing alongside Mr Johnson, WWF UK’s chief executive Tanya Steele said: “We have to reduce, we have to reuse – I do think we need to do a little bit of recycling, PM, and have some system to do so.”
But Mr Johnson replied: “It doesn’t work.”
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman had to say Mr Johnson continues to encourage people to recycle, when asked by journalists in Westminster.
“Yes, the Prime minister was setting out that recycling alone is not the answer,” the spokesman said.
“We’re taking a wide range of action across society to cut plastic pollution.
“Simply relying on recycling alone, as the Prime Minister set out, would be a red herring – we need to go further and take wider action.”
Sian Sutherland, A Plastic Planet co-founder, said: “We have been swallowing the myth about recycling plastic for decades and it is time to wake up to the fact there are no recycling fairies.
“Less than 10% is actually recycled in the UK. Despite being touted by industry as a solution to the problem, all it has done is justify overproduction and created an industrial addiction to this indestructible, toxic material.
“We applaud the Prime Minister for his stance on plastic and strongly urge him to follow it up with measures which will dramatically reduce it at source.”
The data also reveals the amount in kilograms of collected household waste per person.
The national average for household waste sent for reuse, recycling or composting is 45.5 per cent.
Here’s how south east London compares:
Bexley
In Bexley, 54.2 per cent of household waste is sent for reuse, recycling or composting.
This is out of 380.5kg of household waste per person on average.
Bromley
In Bromley, 50.9 per cent of household waste is sent for reuse, recycling or composting.
This is out of 371.0kg of household waste per person on average.
Greenwich
In Greenwich, 33.2 per cent of household waste is sent for reuse, recycling or composting.
This is out of 354.9kg of household waste per person on average.
Lewisham
In Lewisham, 26.6 per cent of household waste is sent for reuse, recycling or composting.
This is out of 319.9kg of household waste per person on average.
Southwark
In Southwark, 35.1 per cent of household waste is sent for reuse, recycling or composting.
This is out of 345.8kg of household waste per person on average.
Dartford
In Dartford, 24.3 per cent of household waste is sent for reuse, recycling or composting.
This is out of 331.8kg of household waste per person on average.
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https://www.newsshopper.co.uk/green_2009/greennews/bexley/19684894.much-household-waste-recycled-south-east-london/
