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Alex Newman, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Sustainability Assessment at the Grantham Centre, University of Sheffield

Why burning waste to power a giant greenhouse really could be a greener way of growing food

Tomatoes could be grown at an industrial scale using heat generated from burning household waste in Essex, UK. Jenoche/Shutterstock

A new project in Bradwell, Essex, aims to change how we grow food and how we deal with our rubbish. Slated to begin operations in 2027, the Rivenhall greenhouse project could become Europe’s largest low-carbon horticulture facility.

While smaller scale applications already exist, primarily in the Netherlands, a proposal of this size is ambitious: to use heat from waste incineration to power and warm a massive 40-hectare greenhouse to produce up to 30,000 tonnes of tomatoes a year (around 6% of the UK’s current consumption).

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