New £30million Dagenham food waste plant will create jobs for locals
A computer generated image of the facility that will process food waste into biogas for energy generation - Credit: Archant
A £30 million food waste plant will bring up to 60 new jobs to the area when it opens next year.
The recycling plant is due to be built at the 60-acre London Sustainable Industries Park (LSIP) in Dagenham Dock where it will convert 160,000 tonnes of food waste destined for landfill into enough biogas to supply around 10,000 homes.
A spokesman for owners ReFood UK, part of PDM Group, said there will be the opportunity for all of the plant’s new jobs to be filled by locals, though some of the positions are highly specialised and will be open to applicants nationwide.
Under the plans an industrial building, a two-storey office building with a red-brick facade and a range of external tanks and equipment will be built on the site, which faces on to Choats Road, Dagenham, along with room for lorry parking.
Philip Simpson, ReFood commercial director, said: “We are delighted to get the go ahead for this landmark plant which will help to ensure that food waste arising in the London area can be transformed into renewable energy and valuable nutrients to go back onto the land.”
Planning permission for the “anaerobic digestion” plant was granted by Barking and Dagenham council on Monday, November 11.
A council spokesman said: “For a number of years we have been working with other public sector agencies to secure the regeneration of Dagenham Dock’s Sustainable Industrial Park for high tech green industries.
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“This proposal is welcome news and will bring £30m investment into the borough.”
As well as biogas, which will fuel homes locally and in other parts of the UK, the plant will also produce liquid fertiliser and process low risk animal by-products such as hides and feathers.
Building is due to get underway in January and will last for more than 12 months.
LSIP aims to create the UK’s largest concentration of environmental industries and technologies and is part of the London Mayor’s Green Enterprise District.
