Encyclis takes full ownership of the Rookery South Energy Recovery Facility in Bedfordshire. The company has acquired Veolia’s 20% stake, giving Encyclis full ownership of all four Energy-from-Waste facilities in its core fleet in the UK Midlands. In 2025, Encyclis took full ownership of Newhurst ERF, in Leicestershire, and Protos ERF, in Cheshire, after acquiring the shares previously held by Biffa. The company also owns the Walsall ERF, which is under construction in the West Midlands.
This allows Encyclis to operate the Rookery South, Newhurst, Protos and Walsall facilities as a single integrated fleet, sharing expertise and recovering metals and secondary aggregates through the company’s Wellingborough bottom ash processing plant. For waste suppliers, the integrated fleet provides a more flexible and resilient service. Waste can be redirected between facilities during planned maintenance, and a single point of contact across the region can be established.
“By taking full ownership of Rookery South ERF, we are consolidating our position as a leading pure-play Energy-from-Waste business in the UK Midlands. With Rookery South, Newhurst, Protos and Walsall all wholly owned by Encyclis, we have an integrated fleet, which gives us significant advantages in operational optimisation and allows us to offer waste suppliers a more flexible and resilient service – in a region that generates around 10 million tonnes of non-recyclable waste every year,” said Mark Burrows-Smith, CEO of Encyclis. “We thank Veolia for its partnership in developing and operating Rookery South and look forward to continuing to work together, with Veolia remaining the facility’s principal waste supplier. Protos ERF has achieved first fire on waste; Walsall ERF is due to begin operations next year, and construction of our carbon capture plant at Protos is well underway.”
About Rookery South ERF
The facility is one of the largest and most modern Energy-from-Waste facilities in the UK. It has the capacity to process up to 657,000 tonnes of residual, non-recyclable waste per year, generating 60MW of reliable, baseload electricity and recovering secondary aggregates and metals in support of the circular economy transition.
Developed as a joint venture between Encyclis and Veolia UK, the facility began commercial operations in January 2022 with Encyclis as majority owner and operator and Veolia as its main supplier of waste.
