New regulations stemming from the Landfill Directive mean that co-disposal of hazardous and non-hazardous wastes at landfills will be forbidden from July 2004. Only sites specially dedicated for hazardous waste will be able to take contaminated soil after that date.
Speaking at an Associate Parliamentary Sustainable Waste Group meeting in Parliament yesterday night, the chairman of the Environmental Audit Committee, Peter Ainsworth, said: “We are facing very real problems in the UK. Our committee found that by 2010 we will be at least four million tonnes off target for the Landfill Directive. The end of co-disposal next year is going to mean it is going to get one hell of a lot worse.
“Hazardous waste will make the fridge issue pale into insignificance, with serious knock-on consequences for the building industry, which has been told by John Prescott to build on brownfield land but will have nowhere to send the contaminated soil.”
Urgency
Secretary of State Margaret Beckett had given evidence earlier in the day to Mr Ainsworth's committee in which she said: “We are encouraging the Hazardous Waste Forum to look at this as a matter of urgency. We are very mindful of the problems we are facing and we will do our best to make sure that these are addressed.
“The Hazardous Waste Forum action plan includes a contingency plan and they have reported to us that it may be tight, but not beyond our reach.”
While 182 sites in England and Wales have been able to take hazardous waste in 2003, Mrs Beckett told MPs on the committee that 37 facilities would be available to take hazardous waste next year.
But speaking afterwards, Mr Ainsworth cast doubts on the government's figure. He said: “I understand that there have been 12 permit applications (for new sites) and the Environment Agency told our Committee that there are less than 15 sites that already exist.”
Disaster
Agreeing that there would be a “disaster” next year over hazardous construction waste disposal, Peter Jones, director of external affairs at Biffa Waste Services, said that the government had been concentrating its efforts too much on the municipal waste stream.
Mr Jones said: “Our estimate is that we need 1,200 facilities for municipal waste in the UK (to reach UK targets), but we also need 2,000 for industrial and commercial – as well as the agricultural waste that will need to be treated next year. This country is losing three million cubic metres of landfill a month, and we are consenting nowhere near that amount. By 2007 we will no longer have any plank left to walk. Margaret Beckett said today that it would be a 'c;lose run thing'. It's not – it's going to be a disaster.”
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