The UK’s Department of Trade and Industry has approved plans for a 72 MW energy from waste facility to be developed in Belvedere, southeast London. The plant will be Europe’s largest such facility.
This decision will see Riverside Resource Recovery proceed with the plans that have been around in one form or another since 1990. The first application was refused after a public inquiry in 1992. The third and current application went to public inquiry in 2003. The project is expected to cost an estimated $370 million and will use domestic refuse that would otherwise be disposed of in landfill. The waste will be transported via barge along the River Thames.
Contractors for the project have not yet been named.
Environmental campaigners have criticised the decision, saying it sends the wrong signal with regard to recycling.