Earth Notes: Viridor Beddington ERF Visit (2026)

Updated 2026-05-13.

Sunray Recycling and Transition Town Kingston visited the Croydon UK site #EfW #WtE #generation #waste

Six of us, organised by SunrayRecycle, 2026-04-21 visited Viridor's Beddington ERF (energy recovery facility) energy-from-waste / waste-to-energy plant that takes residual non-recyclable domestic waste from Kingston (amongst others) for incineration and electricity generation rather than bad old landfill.

Many thanks to Janine for organising the visit! Many thanks to Viridor for hosting and answering all our questions, and letting me take lots of pictures in less sensitive areas, and even showing us into the turbine hall so that I could drool over the turbine and generator set!

We saw:

The visitor centre and introductory videos (and chat and questions answered).
From outside the bay where the lorries arrive to eject their waste.
The sixth-floor control room and the view of the above from above, and the grabber used to mix up the incoming waste and transfer it to one of two combustion lines.
A view from inside of the stacks and boiler and filter bag assemblies.
The turbine hall and generator.

Some interesting points as remembered:

Electricity generation was ~31.5MW while we were there; ~3MW is used on-site, the rest is exported via the distribution system (UKPN) to the grid.
Generation is currently flat 24h/day, ie not demand-called to match grid load and prices, because the plant runs continuously, though the plant can stockpile material to some extent over a daily cycle for example.
Carbon output is ~1kgCO2/kWh, ie about the same ball-park as coal, but performing the waste treatment function too.
The fraction of biogenic carbon as tested by isotope (eg in food or wood, recently absorbed from the atmosphere) is ~50%, the rest being eg via plastic from fossil sources. Emissions Trading Scheme carbon credits will need to be bought to cover the abiogenic carbon in future, I understand.
The plant accepts waste from about 1 million people in 400k households (~350kt/y).

Photos

Beddington ERF from outside stacks against blue sky — (Click to expand each image...)

Outside view of Beddington ERF with its tall stacks against a blue sky.
Outside view of building with steam condensers from turbine above, generator output transformer (generator 11kV to DNO 33kV maybe) separate building below centre left, and DNO connection off to the left; view from outside the rear of the visitors' centre.
Generator (31MW, 11kV) in turbine hall.
Turbine in turbine hall.
Turbine in turbine hall.
Us visitors in PPE inside the plant on the sixth floor in front of the stacks, boilers to the left out of shot.

steam condenser fans above transformer below and DNO connection to left — (Click to expand each image...)

Outside view of Beddington ERF with its tall stacks against a blue sky.
Outside view of building with steam condensers from turbine above, generator output transformer (generator 11kV to DNO 33kV maybe) separate building below centre left, and DNO connection off to the left; view from outside the rear of the visitors' centre.
Generator (31MW, 11kV) in turbine hall.
Turbine in turbine hall.
Turbine in turbine hall.
Us visitors in PPE inside the plant on the sixth floor in front of the stacks, boilers to the left out of shot.

Smell and Noise

Approaching the facility the only whiff seemed to be from one of the trucks entering or leaving. Inside the facility was a bit more smelly, though not horribly so, and loud but again not horribly so. (The PPE issued to us included hearing protection.)

Being able to keep this within an urban area reduces the distance that waste has to be transported, which is a boon if the plant itself can be a good enough neighbour.

This visit was on a cool and slightly breezy day; things may be less pleasant on a hot still summer day for example.

Coda

For a while I have had no sharpener for my old-school pencils, and so I was given a Viridor green plastic wheelie bin sharpener! I have to hope that this has not compromised my integrity too far.