Co-locating waste management facilities

Co-locating different waste management facilities such as sorting, re-processing and re-manufacturing can deliver benefits including a reduction in transport distances.

Photo by David Millington Photography Ltd.

Integrated ‘resource recovery parks’, combining a range of facility types, can be developed in key locations. Such facilities can be considered through masterplanning at the neighbourhood and site scale, and as part of city-wide waste strategies. The co-location of facilities can be encouraged as appropriate through regional as well as local waste planning strategies and as part of an economically sustainable approach to facility provision.

This term 'resource recovery park' is used for many types of waste development and has three key characteristics:

• the whole chain of businesses are included in the park from firms managing waste collection all the way through to those producing the final (recycled) product
• the park is located in a sustainable location with potential to transport waste from its source to the park by rail or watercourse
• all the businesses making up the park have high environmental standards and sign up to sharing resources in a responsible manner.

This approach is now actively supported in urban environments such as London, where it is the stated policy of the Greater London Authority. Recent scenarios considered for waste facility design in London include a resource recovery park. Such a facility could combine a central reception and sorting area with recycling, gasification and anaerobic digestion. The heat produced as part of the waste management could in turn be used to heat surrounding businesses and existing residential properties.

Priority: plan for sustainable waste management
Tags: waste, neighbourhoods