It is common sense that, as well as investing in the infrastructure to processes the capital's waste, we must also encourage Londoners to recycle as much as possible
Mayor Boris Johnson
The Board is expected to agree the move – which will see London-based technology firm Biossence given backing to develop the treatment plant in Dagenham – at its quarterly meeting at City Hall.
Development of the plant, known as the East London Sustainable Energy Facility (ELSEF), is expected to cost £80 million and the board will guarantee £12 million of this to help stimulate further investment.
The facility is intended to generate electricity for 15,000 homes in the local area from 100,000 tonnes of locally-sourced residual waste and has been hailed by the board as the UK's largest eco-fired gas plant.
The Board, which is chaired by Mayor Boris Johnson, said a number of banks had expressed interest in the Biossence project since it revealed an early interest in the project.
The ELSEF project was originally conceived as part of Defra's New Technologies Demonstrator Project by Australian technology firm Novera Energy in 2007. However, it pulled out of the Project for undisclosed reasons before selling the rights to the plant to Biossence in April 2009.
The proposal will go some way to answering calls made by the London Assembly in October for a greater up-take of energy-from-waste in the city (see letsrecycle.com story).
Only one bidder – reuse charity Trinity – has received funding from the Board to date, which has £84 million to distribute to help develop waste management and recycling infrastructure in London over the next three years (see letsrecycle.com story).
Campaign
In addition to Biossence, the Board is set to approve the investment of a further £5 million to the Recycle for London awareness campaign over the next three years.
The campaign aims to influence public behaviour over the coming years and will be further boosted by support and expertise equivalent to £2 million from the Waste & Resources Action Programme. This combined with further efficiencies identified in executing the campaign brings its value to nearer £10 million, doubling the Board's investment.
The campaign received £1.5 million for an initial 12-month run at the first meeting of the Board in September 2008 (see letsrecycle.com story).
Allocation of the monies comes one week after the Board's chief operating officer, Andy Holdcroft, stressed that any projects seeking funding needed to be mindful of European Commission regulations on State Aid (see letsrecycle.com story).
The Mayor Boris Johnson said: “It is common sense that, as well as investing in the infrastructure to processes the capital's waste, we must also encourage Londoners to recycle as much as possible or reuse items that could just get chucked away. The Recycle for London campaign is designed to achieve this working hand in hand with borough councils.”
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