Haringey’s recycling rate remains below the London average despite a slight year-on-year increase.

The proportion of household waste sent for recycling, reuse or composting was 31% in 2020/21, according to figures published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

In 2018, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan set a target for 45% of all household waste in the capital to be recycled by 2025. But despite rising from 29.7% in 2019/20, Haringey’s latest rate was behind the average of 33.4% across London’s boroughs.

To help boost recycling Scott Emery, the Liberal Democrat environment spokesperson in Haringey, said his group would scrap the borough’s annual charge for garden waste collections, which is £75 for large bins and £55 for smaller ones.

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He added: “The council has itself admitted that introducing the fee to recycle garden waste has caused a 2% drop in recycling rates, yet it has failed to U-turn on this awful policy.

“We know one of the contributing factors, recycling levels in flats, is a big issue. Unfortunately, Haringey Labour does little to combat this. We should be focusing our efforts there, making sure all new builds have dedicated recycling facilities built into the infrastructure.

“For those flats already being built we need officers to work with local people, on the ground, to find bespoke solutions. All too often I have spoken to residents who get a ‘copy and paste’ reply from Veolia telling them that recycling facilities in their area just aren’t possible. Our recycling rates won’t improve by themselves, we need to empower residents by giving them the facilities they need.”

Cllr Seema Chandwani, cabinet member for customer service, welfare and the public realm, said the council was “committed to continually improving measures to reduce the amount of waste produced in the borough”.

Cllr Chandwani added: “Recycling in urban areas is challenging, but in comparison to [other] North London Waste Authority boroughs, the data shows we are fourth, with less than 1% difference with second and third place.

“Our strategy understands our whole borough and focuses on different geographical areas, the varied property types and different streams of recycling that can be improved upon. We have also invested in clear communications to advise residents who may not realise they are contaminating their recycling or are not recycling items that they could.

“Co-producing solutions with residents, piloting new ideas and investing in better waste solutions for residents who live in different types of housing tackles the specific barriers for our borough.

“We have recently launched a free food caddy campaign to help residents increase their food waste recycling, which has seen over 1,000 residents take up the offer. We have also installed waste containment boxes to improve recycling for flats above shops, are piloting free textile and small electrical collections across the borough and will soon be launching a community solutions platform where residents can share their views on how together we can improve recycling in communities and neighbourhoods.”