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The Landfill Directive, which was adopted by the European Union in 1999, is beginning to drastically change the way the UK handles waste. The directive was brought into force in the UK on June 15 2002 as the Landfill (England and Wales) Regulations 2002, and since then it has been introduced in stages to give UK industry time to adapt.
The Directive's overall aim is "to prevent or reduce as far as possible negative effects on the environment, in particular the pollution of surface water, groundwater, soil and air, and on the global environment, including the greenhouse effect, as well as any resulting risk to human health, from the land-filling of waste, during the whole life-cycle of the landfill".
The most recent introduction into UK legislation is the Pretreatment regulations, which came into force on 31 October 2007 and this has had a large impact on all businesses that are now required to treat their waste.
- Types of landfill
- Wastes that are banned from landfill
- What is classed as treatment of waste?
- Waste producers – your responsibilities
Types of landfill
The first requirement of the regulations was a ban on the co-disposal of hazardous waste with non-hazardous waste in landfills.
Previously, UK landfills had accepted either inert materials only or both hazardous and non-hazardous material.
From July 2004, 'non-hazardous' sites have been only allowed to accept non-hazardous waste, while 'hazardous' sites can accept only hazardous materials permitted by their licences.
There are still also inert landfills, which will only accept waste that is deemed to be inert and therefore will go through no further physical, chemical or biological changes.
The Directive also brings with it tighter site monitoring and engineering standards. This is supplemented by the new European Waste Catalogue, which has extended the range of materials classified as 'hazardous', and the Waste Acceptance Criteria, which has introduced stringent pre-treatment requirements.
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Wastes that are banned from landfill
Liquid wastes
In England, Northern Ireland and Wales all liquid wastes has been banned from landfill since 30 October 2007. In Scotland liquid wastes are usually banned from landfill under a site’s Pollution Prevention and Control (PPC) permit.
Used tyres
Whole and shredded used tyres are banned from landfill. This does not include bicycle tyres, or tyres with an outside diameter greater than 1.4 metres (eg larger agricultural and earthmover tyres). Whole tyres can still be used for landfill engineering purposes, as long as this is stated on the landfill site’s PPC permit.
Healthcare wastes
Infectious clinical wastes from hospitals, medical or veterinary establishments are banned from landfill.
You must segregate healthcare waste and assess each fraction for its chemical and medicinal properties. This will tell you if you need to treat it as hazardous/special waste.
Animal by-products
If your waste consists of animals or parts of animals you will need to comply with controls on animal by-products.
Waste that has dangerous characteristics under landfill conditions
Wastes that may have the following characteristics under landfill conditions are banned.
- Explosive, for example ammunition, gunpowder, flares, detonators, and waste from the explosives industry.
- Corrosive, for example acid or alkaline sludges.
- Flammable, for example wastes containing solvents with a flash point of 55oC or less, magnesium, phosphorus, alcohol or camphor.
- Oxidising, for example ammonium nitrate, potassium chlorate, potassium permanganate, sodium chlorate.
Chemicals
New or unidentified chemical substances, whose effects on man and the environment are not known, are banned from landfill. These may originate from research and development, or teaching activities.
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What is classed as treatment of waste?
Since October 2007, the pre-treatment requirements of the Landfill Directive have included the need to treat all non-hazardous waste (including commercial and industrial) before it can go to landfill.
For general commercial waste, this means that a proportion of each waste stream your business produces must be separated out for recycling or it must go through a sorting facility. If you already have a separate collection of a material sent for recycling then your waste satisfies the pre-treatment requirements.
What is classed as treatment?
Treatment is defined as a physical, thermal, chemical or biological process, which changes the characteristics of the waste.
The characteristics may be changed by:
- reducing the volume of the waste
- reducing the hazardous nature of the waste
- making handling or recovery easier.
Examples of treatment include:
- collecting waste streams separately to recycle one or more of the separated components
- biological treatment such as composting or anaerobic digestion
- thermal treatment such as incineration.
There are exceptions to this requirement for:
- inert waste that cannot be treated
- any other waste for which treatment would not reduce its quantity or its hazard to human health and the environment.
However, there are very few instances when these exceptions apply.
Compaction is not considered a treatment – a squashed cardboard box has the same potential for impact on health or the environment as the original box.
When you are deciding how to treat your waste you should consider the whole process, from waste production to the practicalities of different types of treatment. For example, check whether there are local facilities for your chosen treatment and consider at every stage whether any waste stream can be eliminated.
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Waste producers – Your responsibilities
If you produce waste, you have a responsibility to dispose of it safely and within the law. This is called your duty of care.
Check that the landfill is allowed to take your waste
You must ensure that any landfill site receiving your waste has:
- an environmental permit (England and Wales)
- a pollution prevention and control (PPC) permit (Northern Ireland and Scotland).
Ask the landfill site operator to show you a copy of this permit. The permit will specify whether the site can accept hazardous, non-hazardous or inert waste. It may also include or exclude specific types of waste. Check that the permit is correct for the type of waste you are disposing of.
Take responsibility for ensuring your waste is treated
Businesses will need to ensure that all their waste is treated before sending it to landfill. You can either treat waste yourself, or ensure that a later holder of the waste will treat it before it is landfilled. You may choose to pay a waste management company for this service.
However you treat your waste, it is a good idea to produce a written declaration. This should state:
- who has treated the waste
- the type of treatment that has occurred (if any)
the amount of waste that has been sorted out for recovery or alternative treatment (if relevant).
Under the pre-treatment requirements, no landfill site will be able to accept waste unless it has been pre-treated. The three point test can be applied to your waste to determine if it has been treated:
- Has the waste undergone a physical, thermal or biological process (including sorting)?
- Has anything been done to the material to change the characteristics of the waste
- Changing the characteristics of the waste must:
- reduce its mass,
- or reduce its hazardous nature
- or facilitate its handling
- or enhance its recovery
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