Waste and Land Management

It also reiterates the Government 's support for the principle of Best Practicable Environmental Option , and the waste hierarchy , within which recycling and composting should be considered before recovery of energy from waste

Failure to meet the targets in the EC Landfill Directive would mean that the UK could face a non-compliance fine of up to ?500 ,000 per day after the first target date in 2010 . This fine is designed to be sufficiently strident to convince member states that investing in different waste strategies is a more acceptable alternative than being

forced to pay the fine . Missed targets will also lead to greater green house gas emissions and hence potentially greater impacts on global warming

LANDFILL IMPLEMENTATION in the UK

The aim of the Directive is by way of stringent operational and technical requirements on the waste and landfills , to provide for measures , procedures and guidance . Central to the Directive is the requirement (Article 5 ) that all Member States shall introduce measures to reduce the quantities of biodegradable material going to landfill , to 35 of 1995 levels by 2016 . Up to 4 years ' derogation from this is possible for countries currently landfilling 80 of wastes , for which the UK is making use of this derogation

Implications . Major implications relate to what wastes may or may not be disposed of to landfill , and the implications for testing or pretreatment . The present view is that (1 ) The current practice of co-disposal of hazardous wastes with municipal wastes will cease . In future , all hazardous waste will go a designated hazardous waste landfill (2 ) Co-disposal of non-hazardous wastes with municipal solid waste (MSW ) will still be permitted (3 ) Prohibition of several waste types , eg . liquid waste , will impact on disposal options currently available (4 ) The biodegradable content of new landfills will drastically reduce...