The sites include almost 2,000 waste transfer stations as well as 161 materials recycling facilities, 134 composting facilities, 141 incinerators and 257 landfills for household, commercial and industrial waste.
In the first-ever report on the current waste management infrastructure in England and Wales, Defra has published a provisional breakdown of the data held by the Environment Agency on licensed and permitted waste facilities recorded as being operational at the end of March 2006.
Part of Defra's Waste Implementation Programme, the “waste data hub” aims to provide insight into the waste recycling and treatment capacity available now, to provide a platform for planning future infrastructure needs.
Regional picture
The project breaks down the 7,501 waste sites into different types – and also provides a regional picture as to the UK's waste infrastructure.
Information available is based on the Agency's licensing and permitting data, so currently excludes sites that are exempt from holding a waste management licence.
Capacity
Paul Franc, waste data manager for WIP, told letsrecycle.com that the next step for the project was to work out what capacity for managing waste is available in the UK.
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He said initially, the project would look at licensed capacity – the theoretical maximum capacity for managing waste. Mr Franc explained that working out the exact throughput for many sites would be made difficult by issues of commercial sensitivity.
One issue that also needs clearing up is the system of classification used for the different sites. Mr Franc said this was being tackled at the moment, to iron out out-dated classifications including “co-disposal” landfill sites, which were outlawed in July 2004.
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