How does our Leeds recycling and energy recovery facility work?
Our facility safely and efficiently treats residual waste from black bins by removing recyclables before generating energy. This helps Leeds increase recycling rates, generate heat and electricity, and reduce landfill waste.
Pre-sorting
In the Mechanical Pre-Treatment process, waste collected from the city is shredded and sorted to extract metals like steel and aluminium cans. These materials are sent to reprocessors to be made into new products. This process recycles up to 2% of the waste, helping Leeds meet its recycling targets.
Energy recovery
The remaining waste is burnt under strict controls to produce steam, which powers a turbine generating around 13MW of electricity—enough for about 22,000 homes.
Ash recycling
The ash left after combustion contains materials like glass and concrete, which are recycled into construction aggregate for use in asphalt and cement production.
Air pollution control
Gases from the boiler are cleaned to remove pollutants and acid gases. Residues from this process are safely stored and treated, with some used in industrial acid neutralisation.
District heating
Steam from the facility supplies low-carbon heat and hot water to nearly 2,000 council homes through a 19-kilometre underground pipe network across Leeds.