About waste management in London

London boroughs are working together to drive effiencies and improve recycling rates

Boroughs are responsible for providing local waste and recycling collections and procuring processing and treatment of the waste and recycling collected. 

If you're looking to find out who collects your waste, you can find your borough here. If you've got questions about what can be recycled, and where, Recycle for London's website has lots of useful information. 

In London, 12 boroughs both collect and dispose of waste. Then there are four, statutory, sub-regional partnerships, which are responsible for jointly disposing of the waste collected by their members. These joint waste disposal authorities are East London Waste Authority (ELWA), North London Waste Authority (NLWA), Western Riverside Waste Authority (WRWA) and the West London Waste Authority (WLWA). Four boroughs have formed a voluntary waste partnership, the South London Waste Partnership. 

The Mayor of London published the final London Environment Strategy in June 2018, which included a chapter on Waste (Chapter 7). Boroughs, as London's waste authorities, are ultimately responsible for implementing the strategy and are required by the Greater London Act 2007 to 'act in general conformity' with the Mayor's strategy. You can read London Councils' full response submitted as part of the consultation into the draft Environment Strategy here.

ELWA is the Joint Waste Disposal Authority for Redbridge, Havering, Barking & Dagenham and Newham. 

NLWA is the Joint Waste Disposal Authority for Barnet, Enfield, Haringey, Waltham Forest, Camden, Hackney and Islington. 

WLWA is the Joint Waste Disposal Authority for Hillingdon, Brent, Harrow, Ealing, Hounslow and Richmond-upon-Thames. 

WRWA is the Joint Waste Authority for Hammersmith & Fulham, Kensington & Chelsea, Wandsworth and Lambeth. 

The South London Waste Partnership is a voluntary agreement between Merton, Kingston upon Thames, Croydon and Sutton to deal with waste more efficiently in south London.