South London Waste Partnership (SLWP)

Beddington Energy Recovery Facility (ERF)

The Beddington Energy Recovery Facility (Beddington ERF) is a state-of-the-art plant, operated by Viridor, that safely treats non-recyclable household waste from the four London boroughs of Croydon, Kingston, Merton and Sutton.  The waste is combusted at very high temperatures under strictly controlled conditions to generate energy.  

The Beddington ERF provides local residents and businesses with a cost-effective and environmentally sustainable alternative to landfill.

Construction of the Beddington ERF started in 2015, with the first delivery of household waste being made to the facility in July 2018.  Since then increasing amounts of waste have been diverted away from the nearby landfill site and into the ERF.  This waste has been used to operate the facility while the commissioning tests are carried out.  Since November 2018, the facility has been running reliably and exporting power to the National Grid.

The Beddington ERF:

• provides local residents and businesses with a cost-effective and environmentally sustainable alternative to landfill
• treats 95% of the waste collected from households in Croydon, Kingston, Merton and Sutton, instead of burying it in the ground
• produces c.26MW of electricity each year – enough to power the facility itself plus 55,000 homes
• will deliver low-carbon supplies of hot water for heating and domestic use to 19,000 new homes and businesses (for more information please visit the Sutton Decentralised Energy Network (SDEN) web pages
• cuts carbon emission by 128,000 tonnes per year, when compared to the previous landfill operation

The 15 steps from waste to energy explained

For more information on the Beddington Energy Recovery Facility and how it safely turns waste into energy, please visit the Beddington ERF Virtual Visitor Centre.

The contract

In the interests of transparency and public accountability, the contract with Viridor is available for members of the public to download and view. Only information that is of a commercially sensitive nature has been blacked out:

• Download a redacted version of the contract (PDF file)
• Contract Schedule Index (PDF file)
• Schedules 1-16 (PDF file)
• Schedules 12-33 (PDF file)
• Technical Responses (zip file)

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• Latest News

  • Statement: Beddington Energy Recovery Facility – recent emissions exceedances
  • Statement: Permit variation application for the Beddington Energy Recovery Facility 
  • Recycling rates continue to climb across the South London Waste Partnership region