RECYCLABLE BUT INCINERATED: QUANTIFYING THE COST OF INCONSISTENT FOOD WASTE COLLECTION ACROSS LONDON BOROUGHS

Richard Ifeanyi Akunne

doi:10.67809/ijetrm.21723352

Abstract

London incinerates a larger share of its household waste, and recycles a smaller share, than any other region in
England. This article examines the extent to which this outcome is driven not by household indifference but by
decades of inconsistent food waste collection infrastructure across the capital's thirty-three local authorities.
Drawing on Greater London Authority waste data, the Waste and Resources Action Programme's national
compositional studies, and the peer-reviewed literature on household recycling behaviour, the article argues that
food waste is the single largest recoverable material lost to incineration in London, and that its loss is structural
rather than behavioural. It situates this argument against the national rollout of England's Simpler Recycling
reforms, which made weekly household food waste collection a statutory requirement from 31 March 2026, and
against evidence that a substantial minority of English local authorities, including several in London, will not meet
that obligation on schedule. The article further considers the contractual and infrastructural dynamics of London's
energy-from-waste sector, which create incentives to maintain incinerator throughput even as diversion policy
accelerates, and the environmental justice implications of a system in which incineration capacity is concentrated
in the capital's more deprived boroughs. It concludes that Simpler Recycling, while a necessary correction to
twenty years of borough-level fragmentation, is unlikely on its own to close London's recycling gap without
parallel investment in processing capacity, consistent enforcement, and a reassessment of long-term energy-fromwaste contracts.

Keywords

circular economy; municipal solid waste; food waste collection; energy from waste; London boroughs; Simpler Recycling; environmental justice

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