Recovering energy from waste

Every week, thousands of tonnes of waste leave homes across Kent. About half of it is recycled or composted, but what about the rest?

Instead of going to landfill, that leftover waste travels to the Allington Energy from Waste plant. From then it's turned into electricity.

Turning your waste into electricity

At the plant, we burn the waste at temperatures of up to 650°C. The high heat turns any water into steam, which then spins the large turbines, producing up to 45 megawatts (MW) of electricity every hour.

If you ever spot white clouds rising from the chimneys, don’t worry it’s steam, not smoke!

That energy goes straight into the National Grid (the system that sends electricity to homes), where it produces enough electricity to power towns the size of:

• Maidstone
• Sevenoaks
• Tonbridge.

Every step is closely monitored by specialist teams and the Environment Agency, making sure your waste is put to good use.

Watch the video to see what happens.

Turning your waste into fuel

Some of your non‑recyclable waste can be turned into fuel. We call this refuse derived fuel (RDF). To create RDF, we sort or process different types of bulky or solid waste such as:

• large children's plastic toys
• plastic furniture
• wood
• carpet
• mattresses

These items are taken from our household waste recycling centres and prepared for RDF.

We use specialist machinery to shred the waste. It is then packed into wrapped bales so it can be safely transported to waste incinerators across Europe. These facilities are also combined heat and power plants, which use the heat generated from RDF to provide heating to local areas.

Find out where your waste goes

Interested in learning where your waste goes? Read what happens next and how you can help us.