The London Waste and Recycling Board met for the third time on February 12 to discuss its spending priorities up to the end of March 2010.

Officials outlined plans to spend £37m on projects that the board hopes will divert more waste from landfill.

The board has up to £84m to spend over the next three years to improve the way that London deals with its waste.

Of the total budget for the next financial year, £2.6m is set to be spent on publicity campaigns, £6m on reuse projects and £9.7m on recycling infrastructure.

Another £18m will be spent on the European JESSICA (Joint European Support for Sustainable Investment in City Areas) scheme, developed by the European Commission and the European Investment Bank.

The scheme allows members states to use some of their EU grant funding to make repayable investment in projects for sustainable urban development, such as recycling infrastructure.

Chief operating officer Paul de Rivas said: “We have allocated £37 million for 2009/10. What we are looking for at the moment is expressions of interest for projects.”

He added: “We will focus on priority materials including mixed plastics, organic, wood, metals, paper and textiles.”

Councillor Daniel Moylan, who was chairing the meeting in the absence of London Mayor Boris Johnson, and the rest of the board agreed to recommend the Business Plan for adoption.

Earlier this month, the London Waste and Recycling Board launched a new campaign to publicise the need to recycle, including an electronic game that can be downloaded to mobile phones and played on the move (see related story).

Kate Martin

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