An innovative fund of at least £70million has been introduced by the Mayor of London Boris Johnson to finance low carbon waste and recycling infrastructure.
The Mayor announced that Foresight Group will manage the waste and recycling fund as part of the London Green Fund and that it includes £35million from the fund itself which has been doubled by Foresight. The Group is hoping to leverage an overall total of £200million from pension funds and other private sector investors.
It is expected that the fund will provide investment to projects to use the value of London’s waste through infrastructure such as power plants and converting waste biomass into clean energy; as well as facilities for recycling.
London is said to produce around 2.6million tons of organic waste a year, which could generate revenues of £170million a year. It also produces around 280,000tons of plastic that could end up in landfill even though many forms of plastic have a high commercial value and could be worth around £140million a year.
As such the fund is seen as a solid and sustainable investment opportunity that could also help the city become more energy efficient and reduce its carbon output. It is hoped it will generate around 100 jobs and save 28,000 tons of carbon while diverting 245,000 tons of waste from landfill sites.
