TEG to build London’s first organic waste facility
Artist's impression of the Dagenham AD plant
The London Waste and Recycling Board, responsible for managing London’s waste requirements, has announced that it has reached financial close on its first ‘major infrastructure project’ in East London.
Organic waste specialists, the TEG Group, will now commence building a £21 million anaerobic digestion (AD) plant capable of processing 49,000 tonnes of food and green waste per annum, as well as a 19,000 tonne per annum (tpa) in-vessel composting (IVC) plant at the London Sustainable Industries Park (LSIP) in Dagenham. LWARB says that the plant will be the ‘first of its kind’ in central London, as currently the nearest AD plant that processes London waste is in Bedford.
Funded by LWARB, Investec Bank and private equity firms including the Foresight Environmental Fund (FEF, part of the London Green Fund), BIS UK Green Investments (UKGI) and Quercus Assets Selection, the facility will process feedstock from source segregated food waste and mixed food and green waste produced by local households, and commercial and manufacturing enterprises to produce approximately 1.4 megawatts (MW) of electricity, sufficient to power around 2,000 homes. The plant will also produce over 36,000 tpa of AD digestate and 14,000 tpa of compost for agricultural use.
Announcing the news, Mick Fishwick, CEO of TEG Group, said: "We are delighted to have secured funding for our first major project in the South East, which is set to become a flagship operation for TEG and which will make a significant contribution to London becoming a model European city for recycling… We are looking forward to starting work at Dagenham later this summer to provide this valuable service in London by early 2014."
Speaking of LWARB’s investment in the project, Chief Operating Officer Wayne Hubbard, said: "LWARB is very pleased to be investing its funds in this project, particularly alongside the London Green Fund. This deal is a great example of how a project that is due to operate with short-term waste supply contracts can be funded. Not only will the facility divert up to 49,000 tonnes of organic household and business waste from costly landfill sites each year, it will also generate power, create jobs and contribute to economic growth."
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, welcomed the project, the first to be built at the LSIP, saying: "This £21 million investment into Dagenham is fantastic news providing new employment opportunities. TEG is also the first to start building at our new industrial park, which I have committed £10 million to transform from brownfield land into an attractive space for businesses.
“It is also good news that TEG becomes London's first anaerobic digestion plant providing an innovative, environmentally friendly way to manage the city's waste, helping to cut down on costly landfill.
“Through the London Green Fund and Foresight, my team has worked closely with TEG to secure the finance for this plant and we are set to support more facilities of this nature across the capital working with boroughs and the London Waste and Recycling Board."
Business Secretary, Vince Cable, also welcomed the project earlier this month, saying that as it represented UKGI’s first waste investment, it “sends a clear message” to the market and potential co-investors that it is “committed to investing in the UK's green infrastructure".
Work is due to commence this month, with completion scheduled for the first quarter of 2014.
