Environmental Issues

Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

An Ecological footprint is the amount of the world's surface that is needed to supply the resources you or your community use. London's annual ecological footprint (1997) is about 125 times actual surface area.

Londoners

• need 21 million acres for food production
• use about 1.2 million tonnes of virgin forest products
• burn the equivalent of 20 million tonnes of oil
• generate some 16 million tonnes of waste, of which some 4 million is municipal solid waste, 90% of which goes to landfill
• transport, factories, office and homes emit 60 million tonnes of CO2 and large quantities of other gases and pollutants harmful to health and quality of life

Facts about Wandsworth:

• There are some 282,000 people in 129,000 households. That is almost 4% of London
• We have a large 'frontage' onto the river Thames, access to the River Wandle and Beverley Brook and several large parks
• We have a large ‘frontage’ onto the river Thames and several large parks.
• We in Wandsworth currently recycle about 22.6% of our waste compared to Bexley (40%) or Sutton (28%)