Waste management giant Veolia has made a planning application to expand the capacity of its Rainham materials recovery facility (MRF) and plastics recycling facility (PRF).
The existing Coldharbour Lane site, under the current planning conditions, has to cease operations by 31 December 2024.
But Veolia has made an application to the London Borough of Havering to extend this operation by two years until the end of 2026.
It then wants to reconfigure the site after 2026 so that the MRF and PRF are operated under one building. This will also result in an increase of capacity to around 200,000 tonnes of material per year, compared to 130,000 to 160,000 tonnes per year now.
Veolia plans to accept commercial and municipal material into the site, as it does now.
In its planning statement, Veolia noted that its operations have seen an increase in the amount of recyclable materials coming through the site due to a clear shift towards more recycling.
It also said that the Plastic Packaging Tax meant that the PRF and MRF at Rainham would be essential at helping to meet this demand for recycled plastic content, especially as it also has a bottle recycling plant nearby in Dagenham.
The application will now be considered by the London Borough of Havering.
