Landfill Capacity Debate
UK Landfill capacity trends.
We have seen a few contradicting reports this year so I took it upon myself to look at the actual figures given from the EA, I have used the Environment agency data that shows Capacity and also Disposal trends from 2005 to 2015. The last 5 years have not varied much in terms of volume of disposal, possibly showing that the rate of recycling and diversion is almost at optimum!
The UK has disposed of an average 4100 (thousand tonnes) or over the last 5 years putting this into capacity shows we run out of all Landfill space in under 10 years.
I have contacted the Environment Agency and under the freedom of information act they confirm:
No new permits for a Hazardous Landfill were given in the last two years. This is the first issue I can see coming, hazardous waste is the hardest to divert for obvious reasons. I firmly believe that no new sites have been given planning in a much longer period and there are no plans to give any new sites permission any time soon if at all.
No new Active Landfill sites were given a permit since 2014 (possibly longer the EA did not pass on the data)
26 new Inert permits were granted but this could be anything from a large quarry to a small remediation site.
So unless something changes which seem unlikely as the rate of diversion and reprocessing are not increasing at any great rate. We run out of capacity by 2026. But the issue will come sooner for Hazardous Wastes that no financially viable processes are likely to get funding and commissioned anytime soon.