Council’s weekly bin collections for recycling is all rubbish, Tower Hamlets mayor told
East London's massive Bywater waste recycling plant on banks of the Lea River at Bromley-by-Bow which handles 12,000 tonnes of rubbish a year. Picture source: LBTH - Credit: LBTH
Rubbish is on the mayor of Tower Hamlets’ agenda to sort out what happens to the weekly council bin collections.
Mayor John Biggs (left) and Tower Hamlets cabinet member Rachel Blake being shown round Bywater's huge waste recycling plant at Bromley-by-Bow. Picture source: LBTH - Credit: LBTH
John Biggs was on a fact-finding tour of the nine-acre Bywaters’ waste recycling plant by the Lea River at Bromley-by-Bow to check on the council’s recycling policy.
“Maximising recycling helps make the East End a cleaner and greener place,” the mayor observed. “Recycling facilities like this help make the most out of our household waste.”
His tour with cabinet member Rachel Blake included the latest ‘materials recovery’ process from a bin collection arriving to the end of the line when it is all recycled and dispatched.
The huge plant sorts through 12,000 tonnes of rubbish from homes and businesses in London’s East End every year.
Materials including plastic packaging, glass bottles and jars, newspapers, cardboard and aluminium cans are sorted, compressed into blocks and then sent off to specialist centres to be processed into new products. Milk bottles for example are turned into wheelie bins, the mayor learned.
Bywaters has a “zero landfill” waste policy with all non-recyclable waste being converted into renewable energy for generating electricity to properties in the area.
