We believe the capital needs £4 billion investment in its waste management infrastructure if it is to meet the Mayor's target of managing 85% of its waste by 2020. The LDA funding is a positive step to help us achieve this goal
Daniel Silverstone, London Remade
Leave no Footprint, which was launched in February (see letsrecycle.com story), has been awarded £225,000 from the London Climate Change Agency – which is part of the mayor's London Development Agency.
The money marks a significant milestone for Leave No Footprint – which is managed by recycling agency London Remade – as it is the first money the project has received from public funds and will help to get four new plants to turn waste-into-energy off the ground. In particular, these are likely to include non-incineration-based technologies such as anaerobic digestion and gasification.
The facilities will form part of a wider portfolio of around 20 plans London Remade hopes to help develop over the next five years.
London mayor Ken Livingstone, said: “This is an important first step in developing what could become a major tool in our struggle to prevent catastrophic climate change.
He explained: “To achieve the sort of carbon emission cuts that are necessary in London we have to move from a society based on huge waste of energy, to one that finds every available method to create energy without adding to carbon emissions. Extracting energy from our rubbish, rather than simply dumping it in landfill site or burning it, is a perfect example.”
Terms
Under the terms of the LDA funding, at least one energy-from-waste facility will be brought to financial close by September 2008.
The money will help pay for a London Remade team who will talk to businesses who potentially wish to build new facilities in the capital and help to launch the projects. Consultants Bob Lisney from Hampshire county council and ex-Cory Environmental director Peter Johnson have also been hired.
Daniel Silverstone, chief executive of London Remade, claimed that attracting investment in energy-from-waste technology was the “perfect solution” to dealing with both London's domestic and commercial waste.
He said: “We believe the capital needs £4 billion investment in its waste management infrastructure if it is to meet the Mayor's target of managing 85% of its waste by 2020. The LDA funding is a positive step to help us achieve this goal.”
London Climate Change Agency chief executive Allan Jones added that a whole network of facilities to create energy from waste were likely to be developed in the capital.
He said: “This is only just the start of a programme of work that could see a renewable energy system developed from London's own renewable energy resources that would otherwise have been landfilled or incinerated.”
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