Waste management firms revealed their plans to reduce the number of hazardous sites to the Agency in conditioning plans submitted in summer 2002. The results, which reveal a dramatic drop in the number of hazardous landfills after the end of co-disposal in 2004, were finally made public this week.
Merchant landfills will fall from 182 in 2003 to just 14 over the space of one year, the figures revealed – a drop of 92%.
Loss
The loss of so many sites will leave two areas – the Thames and the whole of Wales – with no hazardous landfills at all. And the area which will keep the most sites, the North East, will have only five, compared to the 29 it has at the moment.
Sir John Harman, chairman of the Agency, pointed to growing concern over the hazardous waste sector this week when he commented on the government's response to the Strategy Unit report.
He said: “As well as municipal waste we need to focus on other waste streams such as hazardous waste.” And he reminded the government of the Agency's desire to put a greater focus on the problem of hazardous waste fly-tipping.
Area
By area, the number of merchant hazardous waste landfills will fall between summer 2003 and 2004 from:
- North East 29 to 5
- North West 21 to 3
- Midlands 38 to 2
- Anglia 39 to 2
- South West 15 to 1
- South 13 to 1
- Thames 18 to 0
- Wales 9 to 0
On July 16 2002, landfill site operators submitted conditioning plans which classified sites as hazardous, non-hazardous or inert. After this date, non-hazardous sites could take only non-hazardous material.
Hazardous sites were forbidden from accepting liquid waste, but they could still accept non-hazardous waste – continuing the UK tradition of 'c;o-disposal'. Co-disposal ends in July 2004.
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