GOV.UK: Permit variation granted for South London waste facility

The Environment Agency has granted the application to vary the operational permit at Riverside Resource Recovery Facility, an energy-from-waste site in Belvedere, South London.

The new permit will:

amend the energy generation limit from up to 72 megawatts to up to 80.5 megawatts
increase the maximum amount of waste going through the system from 785,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) to 850,000 tpa
increase the annual amounts of some raw materials used
Under the variation emission limit values for releases to air will be reduced. This is due to the current technology of combustion control, abatement and monitoring which can achieve, and accurately monitor, much lower levels of emissions. These changes together are called the Riverside Optimisation Project, or ROP.

An Environment Agency spokesperson said:

We carried out a detailed and rigorous technical assessment of Riverside Resource Recovery Facility Limited’s application to vary the environmental permit, to satisfy ourselves that the new permit provides the appropriate level of environmental protection and that emissions can be managed effectively.

We also carried out a thorough review of the application, taking into account all comments received as part of a consultation with the public and other regulatory authorities.