Enva has been granted an environmental permit from the Environment Agency for a 35,000-tonne fridge plant in Dartford.
The approval comes amid a widely reported crisis in the UK’s fridge recycling industry, with a shortage of specialist processing capacity leaving councils struggling to deal with thousands of unwanted appliances.
The permit allows Enva E-Waste England Ltd to operate a waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) recycling facility at the former Dartford International Ferry Terminal, on Clipper Boulevard. The company plans to process up to 35,000 tonnes of waste fridges and freezers a year, alongside approximately 40,000 tonnes of other electrical waste.
The facility will dismantle cooling appliances to recover recyclable materials, beginning with the removal of refrigerants before shredding and separating their constituent parts. Smaller electrical appliances will also be dismantled and processed for material recovery. Solar panels may also be accepted for storage before being sent elsewhere for treatment; they will not be processed at the Dartford plant.
The new facility is being developed at Goodman’s Crossways Commercial Park, where Enva has signed a pre-let agreement for a 124,000 sq ft industrial unit. The building is part of a wider development providing industrial and logistics space close to junction 1a of the M25.
The plant is expected to become operational in February 2027, following completion of the building and installation of the recycling equipment. It is designed to use 2MVA of electrical power, supported by 678kWp of rooftop solar panels, and will incorporate specialist degassing, shredding and separation technology.
Recovery rate
Enva says the technology will enable more than 98% of fridge components to be recovered for reuse or transformed into materials for manufacturing. The company expects the plant to increase its recycling capacity across London and the South East, while serving customers nationally.
The development will add to Enva’s existing WEEE recycling operations, including its established facility in Grantham.
The environmental permit application sets out measures to manage potential impacts from the operation. The main processing activities will take place inside the building, while a four-metre-high acoustic fence is planned to help reduce noise. The site will also have controls for dust, surface-water drainage and the safe storage of materials.
The application’s environmental risk assessment concluded that the identified risks could be managed through the proposed measures, with most assessed as low risk. Enva says the Dartford facility will operate under an environmental management system certified to ISO 14001.
Wider market pressures
The plant is due to open as the UK fridge recycling sector faces widespread capacity shortages.
Closures and fires at specialist facilities such as EMR’s Darlaston plant have disrupted treatment, leaving councils struggling to find outlets for unwanted appliances and, in some cases, restricting collections as storage space fills up. The Local Government Association and the National Association of Waste Disposal Officers have raised concerns about the pressure on local authorities.
Enva has also announced additional temporary storage arrangements to help manage the backlog while new processing capacity comes online.