Wandsworth has not traditionally been a high-performing Council in terms of recycling.

By 2010-11, it had slipped to 331^st out of 358 authorities – one of the 8% of worst performing authorities in England – in terms of the amount of its waste recycled.

It’s overall recycling rate is only 27%, whereas Lib Dem-run authorities Kingston and Sutton are streets ahead on 48% and 38% respectively.

With landfill taxes and incineration costs high, this simply makes no financial sense.

And dealing with waste is not the only environmental challenge facing London. For example, our air quality is poor, contributing to more than 20,000 deaths a year. That’s why today I’m so pleased to see Lib Dem candidate for London Mayor, Brian Paddick, setting out clear plans about what he thinks the Mayor and London Assembly should be doing to make London a ‘zero waste’ city a long term aim.

• A Clean Air Zone for central London, with a big switch to pollution-free electric buses and taxis – and promoting walking and cycling.
• Setting tough targets for boroughs and disposal authorities to help kick-start a recycling revolution that should include food waste collections.
• Speeding up action to roll out loft and cavity wall insulation, aiming for a ‘zero carbon’ London by 2030.

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