Waste Management and Recycling
London's resource recovery and recycling infrastructure is ripe for immediate and substantial expansion and inward investment. World class environmental management is providing profitable solutions to resource problems here, with a range of well known companies, managing both vital day to day operations and highly innovative projects.
The recycling opportunity
By 2020 London will be producing over 24 million tonnes of waste material. The London Plan requires that 85% of this (20.6 million tonnes) is managed within London by 2020. Much of the growth in municipal waste will occur in London Thames Gateway, which will accommodate a high proportion of London's predicted population growth and where 100,000 new homes will be built by 2016.
Research carried out by London Remade, shows that at least 14 million tonnes of this waste could be recycled, requiring a significant investment in collection and sorting facilities. The London Plan estimates that a further 308 Materials Recycling Facilities will be required by the year 2020, including 199 MRFs, 57 in-vessel composting facilities, 16 Mechanical Biological Treatment facilities, 25 Anaerobic Digestion facilities and 11 gasification or pyrolysis facilities.
The nine local authorities in east London collect over 1 million tonnes of municipal waster per annum. With an average household recycling rate of 9.6% (20% across the nine east London authorities), 37% of London's total waste, but 89% of London's municipal solid waste, is sent to landfill sites or incinerated. Since 2006, all local authorities have to achieve a 25% recycling rate or face prohibitive landfill charges. In contrast to our European neighbours, who are already recycling in excess of 90%, this is a low target. However, future aspirations are high and London urgently needs to upgrade and expand its capacity to recycle a range of materials including paper, plastic, aluminium, textiles, and glass.
The materials recovery opportunity
The market for materials recovery in London is unprecedented. EU Directives on End-of-Life Vehicles (ELV) and Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) mean that London, with its 8 million consumers, is now required to disassemble 245,000 vehicles and 370,000 tonnes of WEEE per annum. Companies with well proven and internationally benchmarked technological solutions can capitalise on both a growing market and a reliable supply of material, as producers look to meet their legal obligations.
London also recognises the need to create sustainable value chains for plastics, rubbers, oils and glass, and is seeking to bring reprocessing facilities into the city.
The construction and demolition waste opportunity
The scale of commercial and residential development in London today produces almost 7 million tonnes of construction and demolition waste every year, levels unseen since Victorian times. At the same time, London's construction sector consumes 29 million tonnes of aggregates per annum. Rising landfill costs, and the UK Aggregates Levy, mean that London needs to address its present inability to recycle this material and produce secondary aggregate material.
London Remade have estimated that, in order to meet landfill reduction targets and the consequential reprocessing demand of London's timber, concrete, asphalt, ceramics, insulation materials, plastics, packaging, metals, plaster, cement and other miscellaneous waste including glass, the city requires no less than 74 additional inert reprocessing facilities, each with an assumed capacity of 75,000 tonnes per annum.
This sector is bolstered by the level of environmental remediation work required to develop the numerous brownfield sites in London Thames Gateway. Developments in the area will generate significant local demand for aggregates. Remediation work will also generate materials designated as ‘waste' and the landfill directive creates an incentive for this material to be re-used as a secondary aggregate.
The organic waste opportunity
Organics account for 33% of municipal waste. As collection systems for organic waste from domestic and commercial sources improve, there is a huge demand for additional processing capacity. Research by London Remade suggests that London could support 29 new in-vessel composting facilities each with a capacity of 40,000 tonnes per annum.
