At present, almost all the waste produced in England and Wales is sent to landfill sites. However, the volume of waste being produced by households and businesses is increasing to such an extent that other methods of waste management have to be adopted. Recent European legislation states that landfill must the last option for waste disposal. All other options, like recycling, minimisation, prevention and re-use, must be considered first before the landfill option.
- Most of the waste we produce in England and Wales is put in about 1,500 landfill sites.
- Each site is licensed by the Environment Agency to receive a certain type of waste.
- The number of open landfill sites declined from about 3,400 in 1994 to 2,300 in 2001.
- The area of land taken for landfill sites is about 28,000 hectares. This is less than 0.2% of the land area of England and Wales.
- About 100 million tonnes of waste a year is landfilled.
In the past landfill was an easy route for waste disposal because it was cheap and space was often available in old quarries. This is no longer the case as space approved for landfill is set to run out in the next five to ten years.
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Environmental impacts
About two-thirds of landfilled waste is biodegradable organic matter from households, businesses and industry. Other waste includes inert materials, for example from construction and demolition. Biodegradable materials such as paper and card, textiles, food and garden waste decompose and release the greenhouse gases methane and carbon dioxide. The UK landfills a higher proportion of biodegradable waste than most other European countries.
- One tonne of biodegradable waste produces between 200 and 400m3 of landfill gas.
- Landfills released 27% of the UK's methane emissions in 2000.
- About a third of the 500 landfill sites taking significant amounts of biodegradable waste have gas controls and over 75 sites extract the gas for energy recovery.
- Approximately 110MW of electricity are currently being produced from landfill gas in the UK.
- Burning the methane produces carbon dioxide, which has a much weaker global warming effect. Extending these measures will reduce methane emissions over the next 10 years.
Good design and management of landfills is needed to prevent pollution from organic acids, ammonia and other hazardous substances. Older sites relied on natural dilution to disperse the effects but new landfills usually use liners to contain the liquid. The leachate is collected and pumped for treatment before discharge or recirculation within the site. Landfills can cause nuisance from their traffic, noise, dust and odour. This is considered when planning permission is sought and minimised by the way sites are managed.
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Health impacts
There are no large risks to human health related to landfill sites in general. A review of 46 human health studies found that increased risks of certain effects (low birth weight, birth defects and certain types of cancers) have been reported near a few individual landfill sites. There is a possibility that other factors explain some of these findings but they may represent real risks in certain cases.
Symptoms such as fatigue, sleepiness and headaches have also been reported. Although these symptoms cannot be assumed to be an effect of toxic chemical action, they may indicate the impact that sites can have on stress and anxiety. It is very difficult to confirm any links between health and landfill sites and the Government has funded further research.
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Landfill tax
The
landfill tax, introduced in 1996 to discourage use of landfill, is set at:
- £48 per tonne for household waste in 2010/11 and rising by £8 per tonne every year until it reaches £80 per tonne (2014/15).
The amount of construction and demolition waste going to landfill has reduced substantially since the introduction of the tax. Industry has found alternative uses for waste, but much more construction waste, including soil and aggregates, could be re-used.
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Landfill Directive
The
Landfill Directive (99/31/EC) includes targets to:
- Reduce biodegradable municipal waste sent to landfill by 65% by 2015
- Ban landfill of hazardous and non-hazardous wastes together from 2002
- Ban liquid waste, and certain hazardous wastes from 2002
- Ban landfill of whole tyres by 2003 and shredded tyres by 2006
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Closed landfill sites
The nature of the landfill process, means that landfill sites can remain active for many years after they have stopped taking waste. The degradation of the waste within the landfill produces landfill gas and a liquid known as leachate. Both these substances are potentially damaging to the environment and need to be monitored and controlled.
Between 1974 and 1999 the County Council operated a number of landfill sites, which were used for the disposal of household & commercial waste. Nine of these sites remain within the County Council's control and these sites are regularly monitored to ensure that they do not pose any risk to the environment. At two of the sites, leachate is extracted from the landfill mass and sent for disposal at a treatment facility.
At the Trumps Farm landfill site, landfill gas is extracted and used to generate electricity which is supplied to the National Grid.
