Top Photo: From Adobe Express

A community-scale anaerobic digestion project in east London is testing an unconventional use for locally generated biogas. Food scraps collected from residents of a nearby housing estate will be processed on-site and used to heat a community sauna.

The system is being installed at R-Urban Poplar, an “eco-civic hub” located near the Teviot Estate in the London borough of Tower Hamlets. Project organizers believe the sauna is the first community facility of its kind to be powered by food waste. The digester and sauna remain in the testing phase, with full operations expected to begin later in 2026.

R-Urban Poplar occupies a former parking lot and collection of unused garages that have been transformed over the past nine years. The site now includes community growing plots, a kitchen, classroom, workshop, tool library, mushroom-growing operation and spaces for repair and reuse activities. Residents use its micro-allotments and shared beds to grow vegetables, herbs and fruit.

The anaerobic digestion system was developed with MAD LEAP, a community interest company focused on micro-scale AD, composting and urban food production. Food scraps from participating households on the 535-home Teviot Estate are collected and processed close to where they are generated. The resulting biogas can provide energy for the sauna, cooking and hot water, while digestate and compost can support food production at the site.

MAD LEAP estimates that its AD and composting systems could collectively process approximately 900 kilograms, or nearly one ton, of food scraps each week. That represents roughly one-quarter of the estate’s estimated food waste, with the potential to expand the system if participation in collection access increases.

A recent Women’s Environmental Network analysis estimated that the Teviot Estate could generate approximately 109 metric tons of compostable food waste annually. If that quantity were processed through anaerobic digestion, it could yield approximately 15,571 cubic meters of biogas, 93,428 kilowatt-hours of energy and 98 metric tons of biofertilizer. The installed system is expected to manage about 43% of that potential volume alongside the site’s existing in-vessel composter.

The project is being developed in a borough where outdoor space is limited and economic hardship is widespread. Approximately four out of five Tower Hamlets households live in apartments, and four in 10 families live in poverty. R-Urban Poplar is one of 26 sites supported through a Women’s Environmental Network initiative seeking to build a more sustainable, equitable and community-led food system across the borough.

That social mission distinguishes the project from a conventional waste-to-energy installation. Residents are not simply supplying feedstock. They can grow food, attend workshops, prepare meals, borrow tools and participate in decisions about how neighborhood resources are managed.

The project also demonstrates a highly localized alternative to transporting food scraps over long distances for processing. Nutrients, energy and economic value remain within the same community that generated the material.