Thames Gateway to host 25 Percent of London's New Waste Projects

21 March 2011 By assisting developments such as the London Sustainable Industries Park (SIP) - where Cyclamax's 15 MW gasification facility received planning consent in an unprecedented 14 weeks - the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation (LTGDC) is helping to provide the conditions that the capital's waste industry needs to thrive in the 21st century. Located on a 25 hectare (60 acre) brownfield site at Dagenham Dock in East London, the Sustainable Industries Park is set to provide a home to the largest concentration of 'green' businesses - including a number of recycling and waste to energy companies - in the UK. Mark Bradbury, deputy director of development at LTGDC explained that one of the aims for the site is to provide a business environment where the synergies between numerous complimentary waste management companies enable a move from the traditional system of consumption and waste, to a more circular system, where waste becomes a resource to be exploited at the most appropriate facility. Given this remit of turning waste into a resource, it is fitting that the first tenant to move into the park was plastic bottle recycler, Closed Loop Recycling. Founded in Australia in 2001, Closed Loop wanted to set up a base in the UK. Having considered London, Wales, Manchester, Merseyside and Scotland as potential options, the company eventually settled on Dagenham Dock. Closed Loop chose the location because of its access to high quantities of waste from both London and the wider Greater South East, combined with excellent infrastructure and the opportunity to build a whole new facility from scratch. In another project happening on the site, TEG Environmental is building a 30,000 tonne Anaerobic Digestion (AD) plant following a £1.9 million funding deal with London Waste And Recycling Board. TEG claims that the facility - which incorporates in-vessel composting technologies - is set to divert up to 50,000 tonnes of London's food and garden waste from landfill each year. Paper recycling company Paper Round is also set to open a facility on the park, and according to Bradbury talks are on-going with another international waste management company with regard developing a plant capable of turning waste into transport fuel. Furthermore, Closed Loop Recycling is about to embark on £12 million expansion at its SIP facility that will double the current capacity to 60,000 tonnes. As a result of a joint agreement with LTGDC, the company will purchase an additional three acres adjacent to its existing site, allowing it to meet demand for recycled food-grade products. According to Jo Sinclair, a senior regeneration professional with Barking and Dagenham council, the idea of transforming the run down industrial area in one of London's most deprived boroughs, into a dedicated waste management and sustainable industries park is not a new one. Indeed, planners at the council have toyed with the idea for many years, but had never quite managed leap the necessary hurdles to secure either the land, or the financial backing. align="left" hspace="5" vspace="1">However, in 2007 the LTGDC got heavily involved, providing assistance with the timely purchase of land from numerous owners, without the need to resort to compulsory purchase orders. The Dagenham Dock site is located in close proximity to local residential property. While this provides good access to labour, bearing in mind widespread public resistance to waste projects - particularly waste to energy - it also provides a potential banana skin when it comes to planning consent. However, despite the potential for objections, the SIP project has been extremely successful in the expedient delivery of planning consent for the various projects at the site. For example, waste management firm Cyclamax gained planning consent for its 100,000 tpa capacity gasification facility in just 14 weeks, and received a permit from the Environment Agency in just a further four months. These timescales are almost unheard of when it comes to planning permission for UK waste projects, and according to Bradbury, are one of the reasons that a quarter of all London's new waste management projects for the next four years are taking place at the SIP. "The London Sustainable Industries Park represents a major opportunity for London's environmental technology businesses. It provides access to Europe's largest urban area and has an unrivalled source of raw materials and a multi-billion pound marketplace on the doorstep," he said. With regard to the Cyclamax project, while it may have helped expediate the planning process that the council itself owned the land, according Bradbury the real key was good design, and engaging the locals. In spite of being no more than 100 metres as the crow flies from the nearest resident, the project did not receive a single objection from the public. "Waste doesn't have to be ugly, it doesn't have to be of low value to investors, and by combing facilities together like this you get bigger bang for your buck," Bradbury said. Explaining the success the park has had in attracting a range of complimentary waste management companies, Bradbury concluded: "The London Sustainable Industries Park represents a major opportunity for London's environmental technology businesses. It provides access to Europe's largest urban area and has an unrivalled source of raw materials and a multi-billion pound marketplace on the doorstep.