WORKING barges have once again been employed along the River Lea in a scheme piloting the transfer of waste to and from the Olympic site.

In a pilot scheme recalling the early 20th century when the route was a prime network for Enfield's once thriving manufacturing industry, 200 tonnes of recycling was taken by barge from the EcoPark, near Angel Road station, Edmonton, a 43-acre site ran by LondonWaste which also converts compost, recycling and other waste into energy.

After arriving at the Free Trade wharf in Bow the skipful of recycling was unloaded from the barge and taken half a mile by road to the Bywaters Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) where the contents was then sorted ready for reprocessing.

A load of residual waste from the Bywaters MRF was then returned along the Lea Navigation to the Eco Park where it was used to generate electricity at the site’s Energy Centre.

The 17 mile round trip took two and a half hours and the barge, which was pushed by a disel tug, transported the equivalent of 10 lorries' worth of materials.

Ian Wallace, operations director of Smartbarge, the Welwyn Garden City-based water transport firm which conducted the pilot on April 13, said the barges will be used to remove construction waste from the Olympic park in Stratford.

He said: "This is the most advanced system of barge transport in the world. If all our contracts were in operation we would remove about three million heavy goods vehicle miles from the roads."

The company is currently negotiating seven contracts and has a deal to transport 75 km of new gas pipework into the Olympic site in Stratford, while each return journey will be used to take waste out for treatment.

Mr Wallace said this could help meet the 50 per cent target for 2012 materials to be transported off-road.

The barges are in fact ex-NATO tugs with a shallow draft and can carry skips of up to 22 yards in length.

They can carry 180 tonnes of waste, which is twice the weight conventional barges can take, and are designed to be loaded with several skips carrying containers with anything from building materials to household waste to one of the recycling plants on the Rover Lea.

Smartbarge ran the pilot with the help of LondonWaste and Bywaters, both specialising in recycling and waste management.

David Rumble, project manager for Bywaters said that water transport has 20 per cent of the carbon footprint of road transport.

LondonWaste’s Commercial Manager Jim Kendall added: "We hope this trial will demonstrate to the relevant authorities that sustainable transport of goods by water can be achieved given the right support".