London is set to become home to one of the largest automated waste collection systems (AWCS) in Europe after Barking Riverside, a joint venture between London & Quadrant (L&Q) and the Greater London Authority, selected Envac to handle the waste of almost 10,000 homes that will see up to 460 Envac waste inlets installed instead of the 19,000 traditional, a reduction of almost 98 per cent in containers.
Two waste fractions, residual and mixed recycling, will be collected via the waste inlets, which will be conveniently situated near people’s homes. Once the inlets are full, or at pre-programmed emptying times, fans located at the collection station create a negative airflow, ‘sucking’ waste at speeds of over 40mph through a subterranean pipe network measuring 15km in length.
The first phase of the system, which will serve around 1,700 homes, will launch in 2019. Matthew Carpen, Project Director at Barking Riverside, comments: “Barking Riverside’s sustainability-led ethos and our commitment to making this a clean, green and pleasant area in which to live led us to this groundbreaking method of waste collection”.
Barking Riverside anticipates that the system’s inclusion will reduce waste vehicle-related carbon emissions by at least 90 per cent as multiple waste collection vehicles, each of which typically empties every bin, are no longer needed. Envac estimates that the system will replace hundreds of daily empties required to service 19,000 bins, made possible by having eight industrial vehicles running full time every day. Source by Envac, images Courtesy of Faust PR.