London’s Waste Could Power 2 Million Residences

A new report indicates that London’s waste could fill Canary Warf every eight days to the brim. The report, conducted by the London Assembly, indicated that the waste could be used to produce almost enough electricity to power 2 million residences, with enough left over to provide heat for 625,000 additional homes.

The London Assembly report says that London produces more than 22 million tonnes of waste a year. At present more than half of the capital’s waste is sent to landfills, in a gross misuse of resources. Only a fifth of that waste is actually recycled.

The Assembly is proposing that the city begins to use its copious amounts of waste to produce clean, alternative energy, instead of sending it off to landfills around the country. Furthermore, using recycled waste to produce heat and energy could cut down the city’s overall emissions by 1.2 million tones each year.
Additionally, using recycled waste for clean energy could help the UK government meet goals to provide 15 per cent of the UK’s energy needs from renewable sources.

The report, named Where There’s Muck There’s Buck indicated ways to convert waste to energy that would be cost effective and beneficial to the capital city as well as the country on a whole. Furthermore, the committee has encourage Mayor Boris Johnson to begin to take measures to develop the technology needed to produce the energy from the mass waste generated in the capital city.