Viridor announces controversial plans

Waste company Viridor has disclosed details of a facility that will burn 275,000 tonnes of waste each year. The facility is located on the company's landfill and waste management site, Beddington Lane, and will handle waste from Sutton, Croydon, Kingston, and Merton as well as a large amount of business waste.

The project, reportedly costing around £200 million (€240.13 million) will see non-recyclable waste burned in order to create steam that will power turbines. It will produce an expected 30MW of electricity, which will be sold back to the national grid and heat energy, which can be used in local housing.

A 100m chimney stack has been proposed as a means of releasing the emissions from burning the waste after filtering.

Viridor is expecting to submit its planning application to Sutton Council in June 2012 along with an application to the Environment Agency for an Environmental permit to burn waste. The company hopes the facility will be operational by the end of 2016 if these applications are approved.