LondonWaste pilots the transport of waste by water

Waste management and recycling companies LondonWaste and Bywaters teamed up with Hertfordshire-based water transport firm SmartBarge for the trial which saw one container of commingled recyclables transported down the River Lee Navigation – a canalised river running from Hertford Castle Weir to the river Thames – by barge from the London Waste EcoPark at Edmonton in North London to the Bow docks.

London Waste a joint venture between waste management firm SITA UK and the North London Waste Authority -a consortium of seven North London boroughs – and operates energy-from-waste, in-vessel composting and recycling facilities at its Edmonton site.

The material was then taken half a mile by road to Bywaters' materials recycling facility for sorting, which is capable of handling 250,000 tonnes of mixed recyclables a year and was opened in June 2008.

The container, which was received at the New Free Trade wharf in Bow, was then replaced with a container of residual waste from the Bywaters MRF and returned to the EcoPark to be used in LondonWaste's energy recovery facility.

The trial took place on March 9 and echoes similar practices used by waste management firm Cory Environmental, which transports waste to the Mucking landfill site in Essex via water and also intends to use the method of transport to deliver waste to its Belvedere energy-from-waste facility in this way when it becomes operational in January 2011.

David Rumble, project manager for Bywaters, said: “It was a great opportunity to trial a system that Bywaters has a genuine passion for. Water transport has 20% of the carbon footprint of road and it was a fantastic opportunity to see a process in action that will continue to prevent further damage to our precious environment.”

Jim Kendall, commercial manager at LondonWaste, added: “The trial proved a great success and as well as moving our recyclables by water, we would also like to use the canal to transfer other materials such as the EcoPark compost that we produce. We hope this trial will demonstrate to the relevant authorities that sustainable transport of goods by water can be achieved given the right support.”

SmartBarge claim that the transport system is “ideal for inland waterways” as it uses ex-NATO tugs which only create a shallow draft.

Ian Wallace, director of SmartBarge, said: “It's great to get another successful trial under our belt with two key clients LondonWaste and Bywaters. Smartbarge's modular, fully containerised system with its unique locking system and high carrying capacity offers real bulk transport solutions for London.”

A spokeswoman for SmartBarge told letsrecycle.com that a roll-out of the system depended on demand from LondonWaste and Bywaters' local authority or private customers, but that it had used it to show the possibility of waste, recycling and composted material being moved by water to the LondonWaste facility.