Residents concerned about pollution from the controversial Beddington incinerator will be able to check out emissions on a new website.

The £205 million energy recovery facility (ERF) run by Viridor has been criticised by some residents and Sutton councillors for polluting the area.

The facility, which is soon to be fully up and running, will burn up to 275,000 tonnes of waste a year that cannot be recycled, at the same time creating energy to run it.

It comes from 370,000 homes across Croydon, Kingston, Merton and Sutton and has already been burning some batches of waste.

On the new website, people will be able to take a ‘virtual tour’ of the incinerator and show the 15-step journey that non-recyclable waste goes on.

The Beddington ERF has been under construction since 2015 and is nearly fully completed.

Anything coming out of the chimneys is monitored to make sure it complied with Environment Agency.

The website says emissions are monitored every 10 seconds.

The data is used to create averages, and emissions monitoring reports are set to be uploaded twice a month.

What happens to waste that goes to the facility?

The ERF was built as a “more environmentally sustainable and cost-effective option for dealing with non-recyclable waste” than sending it to landfill at the Beddington site.

It treats the waste at high temperatures to produce energy.

It is expected to generate about 26 megawatts of electricity each year.

This is enough to power about 30,000 homes and it will also provide heating through insulated pipes to households on the New Mill Quarter development which is being built.

Since November 2018, it has been running and exporting power to the National Grid.

But work on the site, including an education centre and workshop, is still being completed.

Councillor Mike Brunt, chair of the South London Waste Partnership, said: “The Beddington ERF will adopt one of the most open and transparent approaches to the publication of emissions monitoring data anywhere in the country.

“This should provide local residents with the reassurances they need that the emissions from the facility are being very carefully monitored and are safe.”

And head of contracts for Viridor, Mike Stafford, said that the website will give a ‘unique insight’ into what happens to non-recyclable waste after it’s thrown in the bin.

“We recognise that there is a genuine interest in what happens at the ERF and this website forms part of our commitment to share operational updates and information about the facility,” he said.

The new website is www.beddingtonerf.info