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Waste not, want not
FORS Gold member LondonEnergy is to be applauded for recycling a hundred thousand tonnes of North London’s waste – putting it to good use. By John Kendall
G
reater London is one of the largest cities in Europe, with a current population estimated at 9.4 million people. In other words, it has a similar sized population to the state of Israel, slightly less than Sweden and almost double the Irish Republic – all packed into 607 square miles. As a result, there are a large number of people all acquiring, using and ultimately disposing of a massive number of items every year within a relatively small area. Some of those items can be reused, much of it can be recycled. Such a large amount of waste also opens up other possibilities, too. Waste contains a fair amount of combustible material and LondonEnergy, which handles and treats almost 750,000 tonnes of waste
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The Standard Summer 2021
from North London every year, uses some of it as fuel to generate electricity. As a result, the company supplies power to over 80,000 homes every year. LondonEnergy claims to divert more than 90 per cent of waste away from landfill each year, bringing a saving equivalent to almost 30,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually.
Eco Park power supply
LondonEnergy’s operations are based in north London, near Edmonton, where the company’s 40acre Eco Park head office site includes the Energy Centre. It is here where the heat from incinerating waste is used to heat water in five boilers to drive steam turbines to generate the electricity. Around 85
