Following London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s announcement to impose additional charges on the most polluting vehicles (from 2019), ReFood, London’s newest energy-from-waste provider, has highlighted a solution. ReFood, the UK’s leading food waste recycler, opened a 160,000tonne capacity Anaerobic Digestion (AD) plant in Dagenham this summer, which has started producing clean bioenergy for use in vehicles, businesses or homes.
AD is a proven technology which turns unavoidable food waste into bioenergy and fertiliser. Gas produced at the company’s other sites is already used as biomethane, which powers fleets around the UK, including Waitrose lorries. ReFood’s Dagenham site is their third plant in the UK, and draws on the company’s experience as one of Europe’s most advanced AD operators, employing some of the cleanest and safest working practices in the sector.
ReFood’s Commercial Director, Philip Simpson said: “The launch of Dagenham couldn’t come at a better time to help support this initiative. Our newest site produces clean bioenergy, and our proven technology has seen fleets reduce their emissions considerably already. The potential for public transport and municipal vehicles is enormous.”
“This all feeds into the great food waste debate – as a country we waste almost 15m tonnes every year. We can offer a closed loop situation, whereby London councils take hold of their own destiny on emissions, collecting food waste from residents, and in turn use it to power municipal vehicles. It’s a proven concept and makes perfect economic sense, whilst supporting the Mayor’s ambition.”
The site has the capacity to handle 160,000tonnes of food waste annually, one of the highest capacity sites in Europe, and will generate more than 2,000 m3/hr of methane gas. ReFood’s mission is to create a greener, safer, cheaper alternative to sending food waste to landfill.
