Many years ago Islington Friends of the Earth visited the incinerator at Edmonton. In those days the people who ran the incinerator were proud of how much they could burn
These days it is all very different.
On 6th May we re-visited the former fiefdom of Martin Jones (ex boss of North London
Waste) - the scene of our famous foray in 1991.
The Incinerator has now been rebranded the North London Eco Park and the incinerator is only allowed to burn "the residue we can't do anything else with". The
I word isn't mentioned though as it's an energy centre and also on the site are ash recycling (for incinerator residue)wood chipping plants, bulky goods recycling and highly confidential waste recycling amongst other stuff.
A motley crew of us were taken on a school bus to see the composting facility. This has been functioning for two years and deals with the green and/or kitchen waste from the 7 boroughs making up North London Waste(Hackney, Camden, Islington, Barnet, Waltham Forest, Enfield and Haringay.)It handles 30,000 tons of waste per year and produces 15,000 tons of compost.
The food and green wastes are mixed together in a giant cement mixer type vehicle and then shredded in a monster shredder. Next they are taken to one of 16 tunnels where the composting takes place: bacteria break down the waste in the presence of moisture and oxygen producing CO2 and water as well as compost. If the waste is landfilled it decays anaerobically and produces methane, a much more potent climate changing gas. It reaches a temperature of 78-80C which kills pathogens and weeds. The whole process takes 12 weeks.
The tunnels are made of a Goretex material which keeps rain out but allows moisture and gases to pass out but keeps the smells in, following odour related complaints in 2006.
The compost we saw at the end had a lot of pine needles in from people's Christmas trees. They give it away to farms (over the last decade 15% of organic matter has been lost from agricultural land) within the M25 if possible and to allotments (hoping to give 4,000 tons to allotments in the 7 boroughs this year), the boroughs' Parks & Gardens and they have compost giveaways where people can come and help themselves.
Things have certainly moved on in the last seventeen years. Once upon a time it was considered okay to dig big holes in the ground and shove our waste in it. Then we thought we could burn it. Now slowly, slowly we have begun to realise that we cannot keep, almost literally, brushing the rubbish under the carpet. We have to deal with it. The transformation of Edmonton Incinerator into the North London Eco Park represents that change in attitude.
Islington Friends of the Earth along with some other people created an enormous NO in the middle of this field in Sipson village, which will be tarmaced over if the third runway is built. Special thanks go to Debbie for climbing up a nearby tree to get this photo. She's down on the ground on the left of the next photo.
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