A £24 million plan to cut London’s landfill? Ken Livingstone, I presume! Yes, the avuncular London mayor is spanking the cash on getting cockneys and other London residents to keep their tat out of the ground. And what’s more, if you want to be in Ken’s recycling gang, you’re going to have to enter his Dragons Den. So to speak.

Ken, alongside the London Development Agency (LDA), is on the hunts for some waste-to-energy brains, with a panel of ” waste, energy and financial experts to deliver innovative, efficient waste and recycling facilities appropriate for London including those which use waste to create renewable energy and increase the capital’s recycling reprocessing capacity, whilst reducing reliance on landfill, boosting the local economy and reducing the transport impacts of waste”, no less.

Think you want to offer your waste reduction plan? You’ll have to explain it in a Dragons Den style environment reminiscent of the famed BBC2 show where a series of mostly flakey would-be entrepreneurs are grilled and mocked by already-are entrepreneurs in an effort to get some cash.

Says the LDA:

Nearly 7 million tonnes of commercial and industrial waste is currently produced in London each year, which is nearly double the amount that London’s households produce. Less than half of the commercial and industrial waste is recycled and the remainder is primarily disposed of to landfill, where it breaks down to produce CO2 and methane, a potent greenhouse gas. The Mayor’s London Plan sets ambitious targets to recycle or compost 70 per cent of London’s commercial and industrial waste, and to manage 85 per cent of it in London by 2020 rather than sending it to landfill in the home counties.

And says our Ken:

“There are real opportunities in London to develop technologies that treat waste as a resource, rather than relying on outdated waste disposal methods which contribute to climate change. London’s businesses and boroughs are currently choosing to bury and burn the capital’s waste – dumping it in the home counties – whilst recycling rates lag behind the rest of the UK. This funding package of £24 million from the London Development Agency will accelerate the use of cleaner, greener recycling and treatment methods that are already being effectively used in Europe.”

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