North London to continue ‘exporting’ waste

The seven North London boroughs of Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Hackney, Haringey, Islington and Waltham Forest are working together to prepare the North London Waste Plan (NLWP) which sets out planning policies for managing waste and identifying sites for waste facilities.

The seven boroughs re-started work on the Plan after the previous version was found by a Planning Inspector not to meet the Duty to Co-operate with other planning bodies under the Localism Act in 2012 (see letsrecycle.com story).

A consultation on the latest version of the strategy is running until September 30 and notes that exports of waste out of the region will continue.

North London currently has no landfill sites and depends on cooperation with planning authorities outside of the region to dispose of landfill waste.

The boroughs hope to virtually eliminate the need to send material to landfill within the next decade through the development of a new energy recovery facility on the site of the existing Edmonton Ecopark, and by maximising recycling rates.

The North London Waste Authority (NLWA) has already begun consulting on plans to replace the Edmonton facility, with a new facility planned to be operational by 2025 (see letsrecycle.com story).

Landfill

Councillor Toby Simon, chair of the North London Waste Plan planning members group, said: “As a group of seven North London boroughs we are collaborating together to find the best possible solutions for the waste and recycling that is generated in our area.

“It is widely recognised that as a society we need to reduce our reliance on putting waste in landfill sites because that contributes to carbon emissions. Instead, we need to manage more of the waste we produce closer to where it arises and in better ways. In order of preference we should reuse, recycle, compost and, where none of these are possible, recover energy from the waste we produce.

“The North London Waste Plan is an important stage in this process for our group of boroughs. It uses the latest evidence about waste generated in our area to plot out a path to enable higher recycling levels to be achieved and to reduce reliance on other areas to treat our waste. It builds on the ability of existing waste sites to deal with waste and identifies new suitable sites and areas where waste facilities could be located. It sets out a number of planning policies against which applications for new waste facilities will be assessed.”

For construction, demolition and excavation waste, the Plan indicates that some exports of waste to outside of the North London area will be necessary.

Plan documents state that in order to divert the material from landfill, up to 147,000 tonnes of additional treatment capacity is likely to be needed by 2021 – with six hectares of land to be set aside for this purpose.

The Plan states: “Some of the CD&E waste stream, particularly excavation waste will continue to be exported to landfill unless opportunities materialise to re-use it locally. The North London Boroughs will work with waste planning authorities who receive CD&E waste from North London to identify constraints to the continued export of this waste and identify potential new destinations where appropriate.”