Forty hectares of greenhouses, heated by the burning of rubbish, are set to be built in Essex – making it the largest low-carbon horticulture site in Europe.
These greenhouses will be the first of their kind and could provide around 6% of the tomatoes consumed in the UK.
It should begin operating in 2027, when almost all the county’s household rubbish will come to the Rivenhall site, where it will then be burnt in an incinerator.
Gareth Jones works for waste company Indaver, which is building the facility.
He said: “The boiler produces steam and some of that steam we’ll divert to our new heat exchange, and that will produce the hot water that we’ll be sending over to our greenhouses.
“The rest of the steam goes to the turbine, so it produces electricity from the substation, and some of the electricity will go directly to the greenhouses.”
Currently, Essex’s household waste goes to landfill where it gives off greenhouse gasses, particularly methane.
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Indaver claims that the CO2 emitted at the Rivenhall site is 20% less than if the rubbish had gone to landfill, and there are additional environmental benefits.
According to Defra, almost half of the UK’s fresh vegetables are imported.
Tomatoes often come from Morocco, Spain and the Netherlands. But there is growing concern about the vast number of plastic polytunnels in the south of Spain.
Almeria’s ‘Sea of Greenhouses’ are even visible from space, and there are regular droughts in the area.
Trucks then bring the produce all the way to the UK, releasing thousands of tonnes of CO2 en route.
Rivenhall Greenhouse project director Ed Moorhouse says the UK’s reliance on importing fruit and veg is not sustainable.
“Water porosity in north Africa and in southern Spain is a key issue, extremes of temperature and the effects of climate change,” he said.
“What we’re seeking to do is, if it was tomatoes, to reshore 6-8% of tomato imports by growing in Essex.”
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But the National Farmers Union says further projects like Rivenhall could be hampered by the government’s new biodiversity net gain strategy, which forces all developers to benefit nature through their builds.
Martin Emmett, chair of the NFU’s Horticulture and Potatoes Board, says the policy was “originally designed around housing estates, larger factories and commercial developments”.
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Consequently, companies may have to buy extra land to offset biodiversity impacts, which would affect similar investments across the country.
A Defra spokesperson said: “We are working closely with the sector to make Biodiversity Net Gain work more effectively, whilst investing £5 billion into farming, the largest ever budget for sustainable food production to bolster our food security.”
