Leeds, England will soon be the green poster child for waste–to-landfill reduction with its upcoming Recycling and Energy Recovery Facility, designed to remove recyclable waste from the city’s trash bins—214,000 annual tons of waste, to be exact.
Designing the project is Jean Robert Mazaud, founder of France’s S’PACE Architecture, whose expertise lies in large-scale industrial projects including energy from waste plants, water treatment facilities, refineries, chemical plants, and more. Veolia, a United Kingdom leader in environmental solutions, is building the facility under a 25-year contract with Leeds City Council for residual municipal waste treatment and energy recovery.
Below, we zoom in on some of the details to gather what makes this soon-to-be open facility so exciting:
- The Recycling and Energy Recovery Facility’s unique construction is based on the creative combination of glass and timber framing.
- The living wall to the southern facade, which creates what the builder calls a “vertical woodland,” will be one of the largest of its type in the country.
- The building will also feature rainwater harvesting and drainage techniques to add to its overall sustainability.
- The facility will generate around 11 Megawatts (MW) of electricity, which will be supplied to the national grid. This is set to be enough electricity to power around 20,000 area homes.
