Hi readers,
Something a bit different.
I'm really excited about this project starting in Autumn 2023.
I've been appointed jointly by seven North London boroughs, responsible for preparing the North London Waste Plan (2022) to write the plan's 2nd Annual Monitoring Report (AMR)
The North London Waste Plan provides a spatial framework to support the sustainable movement and processing of waste within the boroughs of Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Hackney, Haringey, Islington and Waltham Forest. Underpinning the plan are numerous targets.
The AMR will conclude whether the plan is on course to meet its targets, informed by me reviewing planning applications affecting waste sites and data from the Government's Waste Data Interrogator system.
The job also came with an invitation to join the good people of the London Waste Planning Forum. I met the Forum in April at the (massive!) 178 ha Barking Riverside development site, specifically for a tour of the site’s ‘Envac’ waste infrastructure.
Barking Riverside is still very much under construction. Exiting the station, one is initially greeted with the remnants of the local power generation industry, sprinkled with a light sense of apocalypse. Drifting past the vacant, overgrown plots however, handsome brick built 6x storey Resi blocks eventually appear, each separated by cul-de-sacs of golden 3x storey town houses. Children learn at the brand-new school. Goodies are purchased at the slightly odd looking (temporary?) single storey Co-Op. We congregate at the artfully designed ‘Wilds’ café/community centre, ready to meet our ‘Envac’ rep – (Welsh) Dave.
So, who are ‘Envac’? 'Envac' build vacuum cleaners. Massive ones! Beneath the ground. Waste movement works slightly differently in Barking Riverside. Whilst residents still need to laboriously categorise their recycling (as we all must do), each floor/single dwelling has its own hatch/chute to deposit waste into. Like that, it disappears. Residents never see a bin lorry.
Beneath Barking Riverside lies a network of pipes composing the ‘Envac’ system. Clever landscaping hides a processing/transfer station and mega vacuum pump block on the site’s periphery. A few times per day, the pump simply sucks the resident’s waste away into the block. Numerous carbon filters also ensure that the station doesn’t pong. The success of this became obvious as we enjoyed reasonably priced coffee at the ‘Wilds’ café without even noticing several hundred tonnes of trash was humming next door.
(Welsh) Dave sang the benefits of ‘Envac’. Recycling rates were up. Air pollution from smoggy bin lorries was down. Our European cousins had of course been doing this type of thing for years. 'Envac' have a gig in Wembley which has been running smoothly for years. With just a tiny waste block, you could service around 10K dwellings!
Barking Riverside has been designed in unique way. When designing a site, there is of course numerous competing things to prioritise. Rarely however do you see a site where waste management was considered from the outset.
Barking & Dagenham council clearly took to ‘Envac’ very early on and deserve a lot of credit for trying something a bit different. A waste strategy for the site was consequently drafted (2008), which the development industry needed to fall into. Understandably there were the (usual) concerns about viability. Huge underground vacuum pipes are expensive. Opportunities for profit still existed, however. Land otherwise used for refuse storage could be used more efficiently as new units/amenity space etc. Housebuilders Bellway and L & Q have answered the call so far. Why wouldn’t they?
‘Envac’ is likely to be a game-changer. On streets without bin lorries + HGV turning circles etc. we could build even more dense, walkable, sustainable neighbourhoods. Hopefully this will be Barking Riverside’s future.
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