ReLondon is a partnership of the Mayor of London and London’s boroughs to improve waste and resource management in the capital and accelerate our transition to a low carbon circular city.
Why do we do what we do? 45% of damaging greenhouse gas emissions come from our consumption of ‘stuff’ – the food, materials, and products that we make, use, consume and dispose of every day.
Our mission is to make London a global leader in sustainable ways to live, work and prosper by revolutionising our relationship with ‘stuff’ and helping London waste less and reuse, repair, share and recycle more.
While our vision focuses ultimately on the climate emergency and how changing the way we consume ‘stuff’ can make a huge difference both to waste volumes and emissions, we are also advocates for the power of place-based action to drive fairer, more inclusive local economies which generate good growth for everyone.
ReLondon is a statutory body and was originally funded by Defra to promote waste reduction, reuse and recycling across Greater London, to improve collection, treatment and disposal methods and to boost recycling infrastructure, these remain our statutory obligations.
Today, ReLondon continues to support London boroughs to implement national collection and packaging reforms in a complex urban environment (e.g. improve recycling, navigate pEPR funding), and identify and address future policy risks.
Alongside this our work has evolved to include broader projects that accelerate the transition to a circular economy through:
- Equipping local authorities to embed circular practices.
- Empower businesses to grow the circular economy.
- Encouraging Londoners to embrace circular lifestyles.
- Building evidence to inspire action.
Some recent examples of our work include:
- Cally circular food community – Our multi award-winning project in partnership with the London Borough of Islington involved testing hyper-local approaches to cut embodied carbon emissions in the local food system, helping deliver environmental economic and social value for the Caledonian ward (‘Cally’) community.
- Rethinking recycling for flats above shops – an award-winning pilot working with three London boroughs – Hammersmith & Fulham, Islington and Waltham Forest – across six busy London high streets. The project explored making recycling easier for residents living in flats above shops, resulting in a toolkit for local authorities to help boost recycling for these underserved properties.
- High streets beyond waste – Our programme supported over 100 small food and drink, retail and other high street businesses with advice and training, and funded 38 businesses to trial zero waste initiatives, ranging from tackling food waste, keeping clothes in use, replacing single-use packaging and creating greener markets.
- Repair week 2026 – Run through our London Recycles campaign, our annual Repair Week began in London in 2020, encouraging Londoners to learn repair skills or support local repair businesses in their communities. In recent years Repair Week has now expanded across the UK with hundreds of repair events taking place across London, and cities including Greater Manchester, Liverpool, County Durham, Belfast and Cardiff.
- London’s electricals and electronics footprint – a report which maps, for the first time, the flow of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) across London – from purchase, through use, to disposal – and quantifies the associated life cycle emissions.
Last years Impact Report: https://relondon.gov.uk/impact
Our Financial Position
Funding for the organisation is also evolving as we diversify and grow our income streams to include local and national government contracts, grants and commercial services. At the end of March 2026 ReLondon held reserves of over £5m, which we are using to achieve our ambition to be financially sustainable by 2030. We have a five-year plan (2025-2030) to drive income; achieve a balanced budget annually; and maintain reserves of £2m in the long term.
Our Commitment to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
ReLondon strives to be a place where everyone can thrive and reach their full potential regardless of race, sex, gender, age, disability or religion. We believe our differences are what enrich us as an organisation and as London.
We believe that everyone should be treated fairly and in a way that reflects their needs. This includes recognising and addressing systemic and prejudicial barriers that prevent some groups and individuals from excelling in their careers and in life.
We believe that a diverse team enables us to be more creative and innovative in our approach to accelerating the circular economy, and that listening to the communities we work in will help us to design interventions that are fair and inclusive.
Our focus is on building an inclusive organisation where everyone feels valued as their full selves and can contribute to our success, and where differences are respected and nurtured. We aim to do this through developing our spaces, people practices, communications and culture to promote fairness, respect, equality, diversity and inclusion.