Request for details about where residual waste and food waste from LB Camden council offices is disposed and composted

10. Are non-recyclable materials from council office locations sent to a special processing plant, where they are used to generate heat and power, reducing waste that is sent to landfills?

Non-recyclable waste collected by London Borough of Camden, from both homes and businesses goes to one of two locations currently:

• The majority of the residual waste from London Borough of Camden (and Barnet) is bulked up at a waste transfer station in Hendon, from where it is put onto a train with a direct connection to FCC’s Greatmoor energy recovery facility in Buckinghamshire. The Greatmoor energy recovery facility burns up to 345,000 tonnes of non-recyclable waste (per annum) to convert to  electricity – but it does not provide heat. More information is available here: https://www.greatmoor.co.uk/

• The balance of the residual waste is transported to the energy-from-waste facility at the Edmonton EcoPark in Enfield. This facility treats c500,000 residual waste each year and generates enough electricity to power more than 80,000 homes every year. This plant similarly does not capture the heat. More information is available here: https://www.londonenergyltd.com/about-us/company-overview/
• A very small proportion of the residual waste goes to landfill – 64,793 tonnes in 2018-19 or 8% of the total amount of local authority waste that the North London Waste Authority (NLWA) handles from all seven north London boroughs (Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Hackney, Haringey, Islington and Waltham Forest). Further information about what happens to the waste that NLWA manages is available in the annual waste strategy monitoring reports and NLWA annual reports both available on this webpage: https://www.nlwa.gov.uk/ourauthority/our-reports

Going forwards there are some operational changes which will impact upon what happens to Camden’s residual waste. Due to the residential and commercial redevelopment of the Hendon area, from April 2021 all of the residual waste that is currently bulked up and put on the train to Buckinghamshire will be bulked at an alternative waste transfer station in Wembley which is not connected by rail. From the Wembley transfer station as much residual waste as possible will therefore be transported by road to the Edmonton energy-from-waste facility in line with the proximity principle of disposing of the waste as close as possible to the point of generation. Any remaining residual material will need to be disposed elsewhere. The majority will still be burnt to generate electricity, rather than landfilled which, from an environmental perspective, is the least desirable option for managing waste.

In the longer term the residual waste will go to a new energy-recovery-facility (ERF) located on the site of the existing energy-from-waste plant at Edmonton, which will be demolished. This replacement facility will generate electricity and will also capture the heat from the process which will be used to heat local homes and businesses. You can find more information about this new facility at http://northlondonheatandpower.london/

13. Does the council send food waste to an anaerobic digestion plant where it can be used to produce electricity as well as organic fertiliser?

The seven north London boroughs of Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Hackney, Haringey, Islington and Waltham Forest between them collect both garden and food waste. North London Waste Authority (NLWA) is responsible for handling the garden and food waste from six of the seven, namely Barnet (garden waste only), Camden, Hackney, Haringey, Islington and Waltham Forest. The materials go to the following locations for processing:

• Separately collected food waste – to anaerobic digestion facilities at Baldock and Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire. Both facilities meet and are certified to the British Standards Institution's Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 110 and produce both digestate and biogas.
• Mixed food and garden waste – is sent to the in-vessel composting facility at Envar in Cambridgeshire, this facility meets and is certified to PAS 100 and produces compost.
• Separately collected garden waste - goes to open air windrows in Swanley Kent, Lackford Suffolk, Sandy Bedfordshire and Milton Ernest Bedfordshire. These sites meet and are certified to PAS 100. These sites also produce compost.

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

Kind regards