The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has officially proposed that London’s 50% recycling target be pushed back by five years to 2025 for local authorities.

He also called incineration “undesirable, costly and an inefficient use of resources”.

The UK has a national recycling target set by the European Union of 50% by 2020, although ministers have recognised that London will not achieve this.

Until now there is thought to have been no official declaration that the Mayor would give local authorities an extra five years to “collectively” deliver the 50% recycling target – the current local authority rate is just 32%.

Last year, the Mayor and the Greater London Authority were still working on a plan towards “recycling, or composting at least 45% of municipal waste by 2015, 50% by 2020”.

The Mayor is also proposing a 65% recycling target for 2030.

The recycling target is just one element of a draft London Environment Strategy published for consultation today in August, with consultation closing on 17 November.