We understand that the Compost plant at the Eco Park in Edmonton is to stop operation this month to enable work to begin on the new incinerator. Where will our garden and food waste go for composting in future?

Nature of Request
Recycling
Case id
52

Request

Date received
We understand that the Compost plant at the Eco Park in Edmonton is to stop operation this month to enable work to begin on the new incinerator. Where will our garden and food waste go for composting in future? I’ve tried looking through NLWA papers but can’t find anything about this.



On our visit to the Biffa Murf earlier this year we asked what was happening to plastics now that China was no longer taking recycled plastics. We got a very vague response. There have recently been stories in the press about UK plastics being exported to other countries but dumped not recycled. Has NWLA got any information about what is happening to the plastics that go to the Murf?

Response

Response date

I’m replying on XX's behalf as follows:

I can confirm that the compost plant at the Edmonton EcoPark has now closed. With construction work due to start next year, ground investigation work is needed to prepare for the new Energy Recovery Facility (ERF). The ground investigation work needs to be carried out in the area where the IVC is located, which means that the IVC will be closed for the foreseeable future and decommissioning started from 27 October 2018 to enable this work to take place. 

The current energy centre at the EcoPark is nearly 50 years old and needs replacing to enable us to continue to process north London’s residual waste. Whilst every effort is made to encourage recycling across north London, not everyone recycles and not everything is recyclable so the ‘leftover’ waste needs disposing of properly and safely. Further details are available on our website at http://wiseuptowaste.org.uk/news/closure-of-in-vessel-composting-ivc-fa…

From the end of last month north London’s garden and food waste has been going to the following locations:

•    Separately collected food waste – to anaerobic digestion facilities at Bygrave and Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire and Westwood in Northants. All these facilities meet and are certified to the British Standards Institution's Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 110. 

•    Mixed food and garden waste – to the in-vessel composting facility at Envar in Cambridgeshire, this facility meets and is certified to PAS 100.

•    Separately collected garden waste - goes to open air windrows in Ongar Essex, Swanley Kent, Lackford Suffolk and Beddingham East Sussex these sites meet and are certified to PAS 100.

The proportions of material being sent to the different locations may change over time. 

Regarding the end destinations for dry recycling materials such as plastics, the end destinations for these will vary over time dependent on global markets, but predominantly the end destinations are in the UK (we use two MRFs for sorting north London’s material – Biffa and Bywaters in Bow). We have recently included a statement on our website which is available here about what happens to the material that is sorted for recycling: http://nlwa.gov.uk/news/statement-on-end-destination-of-recyclable-mate…

More details of where the materials go to is also available here: http://wiseuptowaste.org.uk/recycle/what-happens-to-my-recycling/