The concept of a Resource Recovery Park (RRP) is a relatively new one that has been recognised by many experts who believe that they could play an important role in helping to make better use of energy and natural resources and to provide a greener, more sustainable approach to dealing with the UK’s waste.

The RRP development concept is built on three fundamental principles:-

• Industrial Symbiosis – the exploitation of synergies between businesses located on or adjacent to the RRP will provide economic benefits for each individual business together with improved environmental performance through greater resource efficiency and waste minimisation. 
  
• Eco-Industrial Park Principles – by incorporating the principle of Industrial Symbiosis an eco-industrial park promotes an overall collaborative approach between the inhabiting businesses. Working together the eco-park community creates environmental, economic and social benefits which are greater than the sum of the individual benefits each company would realise.
  
• Multi – Modal Transport – by identifying and utilising the best available transport infrastructure whether it is road, rail or water. The RRP will limit the amount of pollution in particular greenhouse gas emissions, together with reducing noise and disturbance associated with freight movement.

The overall idea behind an RRP is fundamentally simple and straightforward, it is about treating waste as a valuable resource rather than a costly problem. By recognising that ‘clustering’ a number of businesses, all involved in reprocessing or recycling different waste materials, will bring with it significant environmental and economic benefits. These businesses are able to share and trade resources, reduce transportation costs and also jointly promote research and development within the Environmental Technologies sector. The critical mass achieved by ‘clustering’, also makes the use of rail and water transport, which requires significant infrastructure, feasible.

Resource Recovery Parks exist already in continental Europe and the USA and the RRP concept is now taking off in the UK. A number of public bodies and local authorities are seeking to establish this type of development on both the regional and local scale.

Examples of existing Resource Recovery Parks or similar developments already in existence are given below:

• Urban Mines Sustainable Growth Park, Yorkshire
• Kalundberg Eco-Industrial Park, Denmark
• ValuePark® Eco-Industrial Park, Germany
• Dagenham Dock Eco-Industrial Park, London