Request for information on residual waste disposal

Further to our email acknowledging your environmental information request (reference 2022-187), our response is as follows.

You requested an explanation of ‘how the nlwa’s blackbag, or “residual” waste is transported, sorted and disposed of and which method of disposal is used’ and data showing ‘how much residual waste is used as the edmonton ecopark “efw” facility [for each year since 2015] and how much is transported to other destinations for incineration and if so where’.

“Black bag” waste is the residual waste left over after householders have separated the materials that can be recycled. It is collected by the seven constituent boroughs of Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Hackney, Haringey, Islington and Waltham Forest. It is also collected at our network of bulky waste recycling centres.

The waste is delivered either directly to the Edmonton EcoPark or to one of our waste transfer stations, at Hornsey Street in Islington or Great Central Way in Wembley. Most of the waste is then sent for energy recovery at the EfW (Energy from Waste) facility at the EcoPark. Some is sent for energy recovery at third-party EfW facilities or to landfill (in event of emergent works or planned maintenance to the EfW facility at the EcoPark).

The amounts of waste that were sent for energy recovery from 2015 to the present are shown in the table below. We do not hold data on waste sent for energy recovery at third-party EfW facilities prior to 2017-18.

A breakdown of the destinations for the waste sent for energy recovery at third-party EfW facilities is shown below.

If you would like any further information, please do not hesitate to raise a further information request. If you would like to complain about our handling of information requests, you can do so by emailing this email address (informationrequests@nlwa.gov.uk) or using the enquiry form on our website.