Landfill Directive

The UK currently landfills (burys) about 27 million tonnes of municipal rubbish each year. Historically this has been the cheapest way to dispose of rubbish. Some commercial rubbish is also landfilled, but a higher proportion of this tends to be recycled. This is highlighted in the table below by figures from the national waste strategy.

Source: Waste Strategy 2000

Landfills do not always provide a very sustainable way of getting rid of rubbish. They can cause pollution, and no one wants to live very near to them. Consequently, recent waste policies have highlighted the need to move away from this method of disposal.

The EC Landfill Directive 1999/31 came into force in the EU on 16 July 1999. The bulk of this law came into force in the UK in June 2002, under the new Landfill (England and Wales) Regulations 2002. The Scottish Executive and the Northern Ireland Assembly will bring forward separate legislation to implement the Directive.

The main provisions, which must be applied to new and existing landfill sites are:

• classification of landfills into three types by 2004: hazardous, non hazardous, and inert waste, ending current UK practice of co-disposing of hazardous and non-hazardous waste
• the treatment of most waste before landfill
• bans on the disposal of certain wastes in landfill, including liquid wastes, certain hazardous wastes, and tyres
• introduction of waste acceptance criteria setting out types of waste to be accepted at each of the three types of landfill

The UK has been given four extra years by the EU to meet the requirements of the Directive because we are currently so dependent on landfill.