The Landfill Directive

Under the Environmental Protection Act of 1990 and the Waste Management Licensing Regulations of 1994, the whole of the UK was subject to a landfill licensing regime.

These regimes are now being reviewed to comply with the European Directives on Integrated Pollution Prevent and Control and Landfill. These laws set out new requirements for the management and classification of all landfill sites.

The landfill regulations of 2002 came into force on June 15th of that year, to enforce the Landfill Directive (Council Directive 1999/31/EC). This Directive aims to prevent, or to reduce as far as possible, the negative environmental effects of landfill.

Under this Directive all landfill sites were classified by their ability to contain hazardous, non-hazardous or inert waste. The technological standards and engineering requirements were heightened, pre-treatment of hazardous waste became a requirement, biodegradable waste was to be diverted from landfill, some types of hazardous waste were to be banned from landfill and all sites were to be managed correctly under new guidelines. The date for the requirement to pre-treat all waste prior to landfill has yet to be set by DEFRA. It is anticipated that it is likely to be a single date probably on or before 2007.

The Landfill Directive and subsequent legislation have various requirements for certain types of waste and its disposal. There is associated legislation such as the Duty of Care, which should also be taken into account.