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You are here: CIWM  >  Publications  >  Latest News  >  Work On The 80 Million Recycling Plant Kicks Off

Work On The 80 Million Recycling Plant Kicks Off

09 February 2011

London's household waste will soon turn into clean energy that can power up to 15,000 local homes. As part of the London Waste and Recycling Board's (LWARB) measures towards the development of new waste infrastructure, The Mayor of London today officially kicked off work on the proposed £80 million plant, which is hailed as the biggest low carbon waste plant in UK.

The plant is based in Dagenham and will be one of the UK's first large scale advanced gasification facilities. Apart from contributing towards recycling and sustainable use of resources it will also create work for 25 permanent skilled employees as well as up to 100 construction jobs during its building phase. Once it is fully operational in 2013 it will turn almost 100,000 tonnes of waste into around 19 megawatts of energy each year.

The Mayor of London Boris Johnson said: "This will be a fantastic facility taking our everyday rubbish and miraculously transforming it into a valuable resource - electricity. Local people can rest easy knowing that instead of any rubbish that they are unable to recycle being dumped in a landfill site and emitting harmful greenhouse gas emissions, it will be used to power their homes with green energy."

A total amount of £8.9 million was loaned to Biossence East London Ltd by the London Waste and Recycling Board for securing the plant site and for the completion of the preparation work. The land for the facility was acquired from Ford Motor Company, which stands to benefit from the energy generated, although the major chunk of energy created will be diverted towards the National Grid.

The process cycle for waste collection and gasification involves taking household rubbish from the four local boroughs which form the East London Waste Authority - Barking and Dagenham, Havering, Newham and Redbridge and breaking it down through thermal and chemical processes to create a synthetic gas fuel which inturn is used to create electricity.

James Cleverly, Chair of LWARB explained saying: "The Biossence plant perfectly demonstrates how waste can be used as a resource and it will make a valuable contribution to sustainable waste management in the capital. Not only will it help divert waste from landfill, cut carbon emissions and generate renewable energy, it will also create permanent skilled jobs."

Krishna Buddhiraju