A five-storey living wall made of recycled aluminium and 1.5t of recycled garden waste is to be built in the City of London to promote circular economy principles.
The City of London Corporation obtained planning permission for the wall at 20 Cousin Lane, which will use two metric tonnes of recycled aluminium.
Planners at the City Corporation, waste firm Veolia UK and Red Squirrel Architects have worked on the design. Cans recovered from Veolia’s Materials Recovery Facility in Southwark, which sorts recycling collected from homes and businesses in the City of London, will be used in the process. They will be shredded and re-cast by a specialist metal fabricator near London into latticed modular honeycomb panels. The aluminium panels will be hung within a grid of recycled steel girders. Compost made from recycled garden waste will be used to plant an extensive wall and planter boxes on the buildings facades.
The project is expected to be completed in 2021.
City of London Corporation planning and transportation chair Alastair Moss said: “This innovative, radical project is a fantastic example of what can be achieved when designers and planners work together and think outside the box.
“The new wall will be a welcome addition to the City skyline, and a befitting neighbour to the Walbrook Wharf Waste Transfer Station.
“I hope its message of a circular economy will influence everyone to recycle more and consider their own impact on the environment.”
Richard Kirkman, chief technology and innovation officer of Veolia UK and Ireland said: “To make environmental improvements at the scale that the UK needs, everyone must do their bit to preserve resources through recycling. This marks the seeds of a green recovery which includes, at its centre, recycling.”
