Infrastructure for Environmental Technologies goes from Strength to Strength

London is home to the UK's largest resource recovery opportunity, with London Thames Gateway's materials recovery and reuse companies complementing many of the manufacturers already based here. London Thames Gateway is due to grow considerably in the next few years with up to 100,000 new homes planned, all producing their own garden and food waste, as well as scrap TVs, cars and furniture. With the average household recycling rate for London being only 22.9 per cent (2006/2007), a solution needs to be found for the remaining waste.

Over the past four years Gateway to London has led the way in developing and marketing London Thames Gateway's environmental technologies offer. Today, the sector is really thriving and Gateway to London is focused on maintaining this momentum.

Assisted by Gateway to London, Closed Loop Recycling chose London Thames Gateway to house the first facility in the UK to produce both food grade recycled polyethylene terephthalate and recycled high-density polyethylene. The plant, which is the first to be constructed on the new Sustainable Industries Park in Dagenham Dock, officially opened in June.

Closed Loop Recycling is amongst like-minded friends, as London Thames Gateway companies take a serious view when it comes to green activities. According to Gateway to London's Business Survey 2008, carried out by YouGov, over 80 per cent of London Thames Gateway companies recycle. Overall, the most regularly undertaken ‘green activity' is the recycling of material such as glass, paper, office materials and waste electronics, with over three quarters (81 per cent) of businesses doing this often. Reusing equipment/materials that might have otherwise been thrown away, and reducing the consumption of electricity and gas are undertaken by 67 per cent and 63 per cent respectively. Encouragingly, over half (55 per cent) of the businesses surveyed use local companies to help them recycle/manage waste.

The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) has already promised that the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games will be the ‘greenest' yet; for example, the Olympic Park in Stratford will incorporate a wind turbine, capable of supplying 1,000 homes with electricity. The ODA exceeded its target of reusing or recycling 90 per cent of its demolition waste and has now extended its 90 per cent target to include waste created through construction.

The market for material recovery in London is unprecedented. EU directives on End-of-Life Vehicles (any vehicle which has gone for scrap) and Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), along with 8 million consumers, means London needs to disassemble 245,000 vehicles and 370,000 tonnes of WEEE a year - that's a lot of spare metal.

London Thames Gateway firms are already seizing the opportunities created by this vast supply of raw material, and several have become world leaders, capitalising on a growing market.

Recycling isn't just about unwanted cars and household waste, and if we look at recycling construction debris in the region, we find firms taking advantage of the staggering 7 million tonnes of construction and demolition waste created in London every year - levels unseen since the Victorian building boom. At the same time, London's construction sector consumes 29 million tonnes of aggregates per annum, and rising landfill costs and the UK Aggregates Levy mean that London needs to address the shortfall in recycling this material and producing secondary aggregate material.

London Remade, the leading waste management and recycling advisors to businesses, have estimated that by 2020 there will be over 14 million tonnes of recyclate to handle plus another 7 million tonnes that could be used for energy recovery. The capital therefore needs additional reprocessing facilities to meet landfill reduction targets and reprocessing demands.

The private sector is recognising the vast market advantages of a London Thames Gateway location and we are seeing a steady increase in interest from UK international firms involved in areas such as renewable energies, and materials processing and remanufacture. 

Bywaters' cutting edge Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) is part of a £30 million relocation project to a 9.2 acre site in Bow, east London. With an input capacity of up to 250,000 tonnes per year, it is the largest undercover dry recyclables MRF in the capital.

Another jewel in London Thames Gateway's environmental technology crown is, Combined Energy Solutions (CESenergy), a wholly Irish owned company that design, build and manage energy efficient CHP/Tri-generation heating and cooling systems which recently moved to Shoreditch thanks to Gateway to London and Think London.

Compared with traditional heat and power production, every 1MW of energy produced by a CHP unit prevents 1,250 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year being emitted to the atmosphere. CHP use also reduces the emission of sulphur and nitrogen oxides, which contribute to acid rain and acidification, and it helps to preserve finite fossil fuel reserves.

Businesses specialising in environmental technologies are opening their eyes to the fact that east London is home to some of the most advanced research facilities in the UK. The growing cluster is not only bringing jobs and skills to the area, but the companies' proximity to one another is also reducing the impact on the surrounding environment and transport infrastructure.

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