Barge on River Thames, London - Dec 2009

Mucking Marshes landfill was a major landfill site servicing

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, close to the hamlet of

Mucking Mucking is a hamlet and former Church of England parish adjoining the Thames Estuary in southern Essex, England. It is located approximately south of the town of Stanford-le-Hope in what is now Thurrock unitary authority. In 1931 the parish had ...

. Covering hundreds of acres of former gravel

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envir ...

, it was one of the largest landfills in

Western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...

and had been filled for decades with

municipal A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

and

commercial waste Commercial waste consists of waste from premises used mainly for the purposes of a trade or business or for the purpose of sport, recreation, education or entertainment, but excluding household, agricultural or industrial waste.River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

barges Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels ...

to Mucking

Wharf A wharf, quay (, also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more berths (mooring locatio ...

. The barges, each carrying dozens of distinctive yellow containers, were a familiar, though rarely commented-upon, sight along the Thames through Central London. Once the barges had travelled downstream from Walbrook Wharf, mechanical cranes at Mucking Wharf unloaded the containers onto

truck A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame constructi ...

s. The trucks made their way up the artificial

mound A mound is a heaped pile of earth, gravel, sand, rocks, or debris. Most commonly, mounds are earthen formations such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. A mound may be any rounded area of topographically higher ...

created by decades of garbage compaction that still towers over the surrounding flat landscape. Flocks of

seagulls Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the family Laridae in the suborder Lari. They are most closely related to the terns and skimmers and only distantly related to auks, and even more distantly to waders. Until the 21st century, ...

and other scavenging estuarine birds were a familiar sight as the trucks disgorged their contents. The former landfill site itself, although it dominates the village of

, is guarded and surrounded by a

perimeter fence Demarcation of a perimeter, when the protection of assets, personnel or buildings is required, is normally affected by the building of a perimeter fence system. The level of protection offered varies according to the threat level to the perimeter. D ...

more than four miles (6 km) long.

Cory Environmental Cory is a recycling and waste management company based in London. Originally founded as William Cory & Son in 1896, the company has operated vessels on the River Thames for more than 125 years, transporting a range of commodities and materials in ...

, the operators of the site, gated off Mucking Wharf Road so that views of the Thames meeting the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...

could only be accessed via a circuitous footpath through the neighbouring village of

East Tilbury East Tilbury is a village and former civil parish in the unitary authority of Thurrock borough, Essex, England, and one of the traditional Church of England parishes in Thurrock. In 1931 the parish had a population of 353. History In Saxon ti ...

Conversion to a nature park

Changes in London governance, including the creation of the Greater London Authority under Ken Livingstone, led to indications of a reassessment of London's waste strategy based more on recycling and less on landfill sites like Mucking Marshes. However, in 2007, Mucking Marshes Landfill was granted an extension to receive London's waste until 2010. In 2012, the site was reclaimed for community and environmental use in a project involving The Cory Environmental Trust, DP World port, and the

Essex Wildlife Trust The Essex Wildlife Trust (EWT) is one of 46 wildlife trusts which cover the United Kingdom. The EWT was founded in 1959, and it describes itself as Essex's leading conservation charity, which aims to protect wildlife for the future and the people ...

working together to create the Thurrock Thameside Nature Park. This is a wildlife site open to the public, expanding to over the next few years, to help establish and protect wildlife and bird populations and environments. The site also houses the recently completed Cory Environmental Trust Visitor Centre, a drum-shaped, timber-clad building designed by

van Heyningen and Haward Architects van Heyningen and Haward is an architectural practice, founded in 1983 by Birkin Haward and Joanna van Heyningen, and now owned and managed by James McCosh and Meryl Townley. The London architects work primarily in education, and have also work ...

. The reserve and the new building were opened on 11 May 2013 by Sir David Attenborough, who described the building as 'revolutionary'.

Power generation

The decomposition of organic matter within the landfill generates a gas containing up to about 50 percent

methane Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The relative abundance of methane on Ea ...

. This

landfill gas Landfill gas is a mix of different gases created by the action of microorganisms within a landfill as they decompose organic waste, including for example, food waste and paper waste. Landfill gas is approximately forty to sixty percent methane ...

is collected by a network of pipes and used in on-site power stations. Mucking Gas 2 Landfill Scheme has an output 3.8 MW and Mucking Gas 3 Scheme has an output 3.9 MW. Electricity is fed into the National Grid. It is envisaged that landfill gas will continue to be produced for about 30 years.

References

External links

''Thurrock Thameside Nature Park''
- official site Landfills in the United Kingdom Thurrock {{waste-stub