Londoners urged to recycle three times more waste

However, as he kicked off the new campaign, boroughs were warning of an impending “crisis” caused by a lack of available space in the Capital's recycling sites.

The new campaign features advertising depicting an annoying bin bag that is looking to be fed with all types of household rubbish. The adverts encourage Londoners to ‘starve their bins' and instead feed their recycling box or bag.

With adverts on radio, online and on London buses and the Tube, the Mayor hopes the campaign will build awareness and promote behavioural change, highlighting the recycling services run by the boroughs.

If London misses its targets for failing to divert waste away from landfill, estimates suggest that the city could face government fines of £1.7 billion between now and 2020.

Speaking at the launch today Mr Livingstone said: “The gulf between what Londoners say they are recycling and what is required is still huge. In London we are recycling just over 20% of our rubbish, yet when we asked Londoners if they are recycling, 93% of people said they are recycling paper and 90% say they are recycling glass all the time.

“If we don't recycle, our rubbish gets tipped into vast landfill sites in the home counties, which are fast running out, or it gets burnt, adding to our contribution to climate change. I am today calling on all Londoners to live up to their claims and wishes and get recycling,” the Mayor added.

The “Recycle for London” new campaign has been part-funded by WRAP, the Waste and Resources Action Programme, and is being run in partnership with the free daily newspaper thelondonpaper.

Capacity “crisis”

After the campaign launch, the London borough of Harrow met with the Mayor to warn Mr Livingstone that if people in the capital do recycle more of their waste, there could be a shortage of capacity to deal with the extra material.

Harrow, which supports the new recycling campaign launched by the Mayor, has had to landfill small proportions of collected food waste over the summer, because it collected more material than it had contracted composting capacity to cover (see letsrecycle.com story).

It said new collection schemes in London were having to be delayed because of the shortage of treatment capacity available.

The borough wants the Mayor's new waste strategy to ensure that infrastructure is in place to cope with the increase in recycling needed to meet London's targets.

Councillor Chris Mote, leader of Harrow Council said: “Londoners are now recycling more organic waste, which is a positive sign, but has led to capacity problems during summer at our composting site.

“In Harrow, we are well on track to recycling nearly 50% of our waste by 2010. However, recycling targets are a waste of space if there is not enough capacity. We want the Mayor to support our plans to increase the amount of compost we can recycle,” Cllr Mote explained.