Westminster City Council

Westminster City Council is committed to preventing pollution of the environment, through reducing resource consumption and minimising emissions and waste; continual improvement in environmental performance by setting and reviewing targets to meet our Environmental. 

More green that just vehicle movement reduction

Using our Commercial Waste Service not only has the immediate impact on your neighbourhood of reduced vehicle movements, there is also all the added impact wasting nothing we collect. Whether you are having recycling collected or general waste; everything gets used again.

Recyclable materials go to our processing plant in SE15 for sorting and bulking. All general waste that can’t be recycled goes to create clean electricity and heat for London through the award winning combined heat and power (CHP) energy recovery facility in Deptford. This saves on burning fossil fuel for power instead.

Westminster City Council's Environment policy

Westminster City Council's Greener City Action Plan (GCAP) sets out how the City of Westminster is leading the way to becoming a more sustainable city. It is designed to help top-tier managers to ensure that all of our services and policies work together to create a more sustainable and liveable city.

Approved by the Leader and Chief Executive of Westminster City Council, February 2015 The aim of this policy is to protect and improve the environment locally, nationally and globally by defining Westminster City Council’s commitment to becoming leaders in good environmental practice and innovation.

Climate change and energy:

• Minimise carbon impacts and other contributions to climate change and acidification
• Create conditions to substantially reduce energy consumption
• Use renewable energy sources
• Make adaptations to anticipate climate change effects

Waste & recovery:

• Reduce waste at source
• Reuse and repair materials that cannot be reduced
• Recycle materials that cannot be reused
• Recover resources from waste

Pimlico District Heating Undertaking (PDHU)

Pimlico District Heating Undertaking (PDHU) is owned and managed by Westminster City Council.

Built over 50 years ago to help combat London’s air pollution, the PDHU continues to be a crucial source of clean, affordable energy in the city.

PDHU originally used waste heat from Battersea Power Station to supply new housing without adding to London’s smog. This was a landmark initiative following the Great Smog of 1952, which caused the death of an estimated 4,000 people. 

The system was upgraded in 2006 with a £6.9million boiler plant being added to the system. The scheme now provides heating and hot water services to 3,256 homes, 50 commercial premises and three schools.