Municipal waste
Landfill proportion below England average
Municipal waste 2000/01, Thousand tonnes, London
Seventy-two per cent of London’s municipal waste was managed through landfill in 2000/01, slightly lower than the average of 78 per cent for England. The largest proportion of London’s waste goes to Essex for landfill, although significant amounts go for disposal in Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire.
Each household in London produced around 1.1 tonnes of waste on average in 2000/01. Between 1996/97 and 2000/01 municipal waste in London increased by 16 per cent. Although London is predominantly an urban area, it is not entirely built-up. London contains 33 Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), including Epping Forest and Hainault Forest, and is surrounded by the Green Belt.
London is one of the most important historic cities in the world with over 18,000 listed buildings or historic areas; a fifth of these are in Westminster. It also has 800 conservation areas, a tenth of all the conservation areas in England and Wales.
The capital has seen a reduction in the pollutants associated with coal burning since the great London smog of December 1952. However, there are concerns over the levels of pollution of nitrogen and nitrogen dioxide caused by road traffic; roadside levels measured 38 whereas those at the kerb measured 5 in 2003.
The majority of London’s rivers and canals (56 per cent) were in the top three grades (A to C) in 1999-2001, which is second only to a peak of 60 per cent in 1992-94. But this is a low percentage when compared to the Thames Region, and England and Wales as a whole, both had 87 per cent of their rivers in these grades.
London’s weather was unsettled throughout 2002, typified by July being the wettest for 10 years but the warmest for 14 years. November and December 2002 were the wettest since records began, contrasting with March of the same year which had London’s warmest Good Friday (of those falling in March) since records began.
Source: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; The Environment Agency; Office of the Deputy Prime Minister
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