Spend the day exploring two of the UK’s leading resource recovery operations in North London.

At Biffa’s Edmonton Materials Recovery Facility, a site with 250,000 tonnes of capacity, you’ll see how Greyparrot’s AI-enabled sorting and Polytag’s Ecotrace traceability programme are improving recycling performance and the quality of recovered material.

After lunch, you’ll move on to Edmonton EcoPark, run by LondonEnergy Ltd for the North London Waste Authority. The campus manages around 700,000 tonnes of waste a year for some two million residents across seven boroughs, and you’ll hear how its redevelopment programme is building a lower-carbon resource management system for North London.

Good to know: This visit lasts four to five hours from arrival. Private transport runs from Tottenham Hale Underground Station to both sites and back. Please note that your London Underground ticket is not included. PPE is required and will be provided in your size. This visit is not suitable for those with mobility issues or a pacemaker.

Visit timings: 10:00 – 15:00 (please note timings are approx and are subject to change).

£40 + VAT per person 

Enjoy a guided walk through Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, Covent Garden, Fleet Street, and past the Royal Courts of Justice to St Paul’s Cathedral.

Along the route, officers from the City of Westminster and the City of London explain how they run 24-hour street services for a capital with a busy nightlife and millions of visitors each year, and how public realm services work where historic buildings sit beside offices and flats share streets with hotels.

The walk finishes with lunch at the Guildhall, home of the City of London Corporation, whose Great Hall has been the seat of City government since the Middle Ages.

Good to know: The route covers 4 to 5km over about three hours, so comfortable shoes are essential, and a raincoat is advisable, as the walk goes ahead in any weather. Lunch is included; travel to Trafalgar Square is not.

Visit timings: 10:00 – 13:00 (please note timings are approx and are subject to change).

£30 + VAT per person

Western Riverside Waste Authority serves over a million residents across Hammersmith & Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, Lambeth, and Wandsworth, and sends its residual waste by river.

You can reach the site by ferry from central London, passing WRWA’s Cringle Dock transfer station on the way to its main site at Smugglers Way.

There, you’ll tour a Materials Recycling Facility built to fit a tight urban footprint and a Household Waste Recycling Centre with its own reuse bay. The site is also home to the ReWork Reuse Workshop, a charity that refurbishes electrical items brought to the HWRC, and an Education Centre that welcomes over 2,000 school children and local residents each year.

After lunch, you’ll watch barges load containers of compacted residual waste bound for Cory’s Energy from Waste facility. The Thames has carried London’s waste for centuries and still takes thousands of vehicle movements off the city’s roads. The visit ends with transport to the iconic Battersea Power Station, where the afternoon is yours to explore.

Good to know: The facilities tour takes about three and a half hours from arrival. Lunch and transport to Battersea Power Station are included; travel to the site and back from Battersea is not. You’ll need to complete a health and safety form after booking and wear sturdy, closed-toe footwear. Parts of the site have steps without lift access, and some areas of the MRF are unsuitable for those with a pacemaker. 

Visit timings: 9:30 – 14:30 with additional cultural visit time available following this if attendees wish to use it (please note timings are approx and are subject to change).

£40 + VAT per person

Riverside Resource Recovery in the London Borough of Bexley is one of the largest Energy from Waste operations in the UK.

The site processes approximately 750,000 tonnes of waste a year that would otherwise go to landfill and generates around 580,000 MWh of electricity. Its waste heat also feeds an underground heat transmission main, designated nationally significant by the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, helping to meet the heating demand of the entire City of London and roughly half of Westminster.

Your visit begins with refreshments and a short presentation on the plant’s carbon capture equipment and district heating, followed by a tour of both Belvedere 1 and Belvedere 2. You’ll then head to The Ship in Greenwich for lunch, with time afterwards to explore Greenwich or the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site before returning to central London by Uber Boat by Thames Clippers.

Good to know: The full day runs to about six hours, including two and a half hours at the plant. Your ticket covers a train ticket to Abbey Wood, transport to the site, lunch at The Ship, and the boat back to central London. Sturdy, closed-toe footwear is required. The visit is not suitable for wheelchair users or those with a pacemaker.

Visit timings: 9:30 – 17:00 (please note timings are approx and are subject to change).

£80 + VAT per person

Join us in Cambridge for a morning immersed in the city’s resources and waste history.

The day begins at the Cambridge Museum of Technology, an industrial heritage museum set in a Victorian pumping station and home to the 1894 Refuse Destructor, where you’ll learn how nineteenth-century Britain began recovering energy from waste and recycling, and how it dealt with its sewage.

After a tour of the museum and lunch in the original Engineer’s House, you’ll join a technical seminar on how Cambridge manages its waste and recycling today, bringing the story from the Victorian destructor to the present.

Delegates heading back after the morning programme will depart Cambridge at around 14:30. If you’d like to stay on, a later departure at 16:30 gives you two hours of free time to explore the city, with the option of a guided punting tour past the historic colleges.

Good to know: The morning programme takes around half a day, including travel between London and Cambridge, or a full day if you stay for the afternoon. Exact timings will be confirmed closer to the event. Your ticket covers private transport between Cambridge station and the museum in both directions, along with lunch on site. Your train from London and any afternoon activities are not included. The museum is wheelchair accessible, though some parts of the site take longer to reach, so please email us when booking if you need assistance. If you plan on joining activities in the city, please check their accessibility information.

Visit timings: 10:45 – 14:30 with additional cultural visit time available following this if attendees wish to use it (please note timings are approx and are subject to change).

£80 + VAT per person