The north London boroughs of Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Hackney, Haringey, Islington and Waltham Forest collect rubbish from residents and sometimes from businesses. They take it to the energy-from-waste facility in Edmonton, Enfield. This facility is run by LondonEnergy Limited, a company wholly owned by North London Waste Authority.
See our video, 'What happens to north London's waste':
What is an energy-from-waste facility?
An energy-from-waste (EfW) facility is a way to dispose of waste. The waste goes into a kind of boiler where it is burnt at a very hot temperature. This process heats water to make steam, which then drives turbines to create electricity. The leftover ash also gets collected and used in road-making and construction, and the gases go through an intensive cleaning process.
EfW facilities are considered a good alternative to landfill, which releases harmful 'landfill gas', a mixture of carbon dioxide, methane and water vapour. Over a 100 year period, methane is 25 times more potent as a greenhouse gas compared to carbon dioxide.
The following animated film, made by LondonEnergy Limited, provides more detailed information about how the Edmonton EfW works:
Find out where all of north London's recycled and waste materials go:
Where does the recycling and waste go?
Planning for the future
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The current EfW facility was built over 50 years ago. We are redeveloping the Edmonton site and replacing the EfW with an 'energy recovery facility', a much greener and more efficient facility. The new facility will use the latest and best technology to control pollutants and limit our environmental impacts. It will also have the ability to export power to the national grid and to provide heat to a decentralised energy network, unlocking one of the UK’s largest District Heat Networks. This is a network supplying up to 60,000 local homes with low-carbon heating and hot water generated by heat from the energy recovery process.
Read more about the development of the Edmonton EcoPark site.