Legislation

2. Landfill Directive

The Landfill Directive (1999/31/EC, 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 bit-by-bit to give UK industry time to adapt.

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 licenses.

The Directive has banned whole tyres from landfill since 2003, with this ban extending to shredded tyres from July 2006, while liquid wastes have been banned from landfill since October 2007.

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.
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. This treatment must include a physical, thermal, chemical or biological process - which can include sorting - to change the characteristics of the waste to either reduce its volume, reduce its hazardous nature, facilitate its handling, or enhance its recovery.

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