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Waste Acceptance Criteria



For landfill, wastes must be classified in one of the following categories:

  • Inert
  • Non-hazardous
  • Hazardous

Reduce; Reuse; Recycle



The Landfill Directive aims to reduce reliance on landfill as a disposal option, minimise the impacts of landfills on the environment and human health, and ensure consistent standards across the EU. It aims to do this by:

  • setting minimum standards for the location, design, construction and operation of landfills
  • setting targets for diversion of biodegradable municipal waste from landfill
  • controlling the nature of waste accepted for landfill

In England and Wales waste going to landfill is controlled under the following regulations:

  • The Landfill (England and Wales) Regulations 2002
  • The Landfill (England and Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2004
  • The Landfill (England and Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2005

The 2002 regulations are already in force. The 2004 and 2005 regulations came fully into force from 16 July.

What does it mean?

  • The Landfill Directive, as applied under the Landfill (England and Wales) Regulations 2002, was introduced to reduce the heavy reliance on landfill and reduce the environmental impact of landfill.
  • Waste needs to be classified to strict guidelines and only waste of the correct category can be accepted at the appropriate landfill. Certain waste cannot be landfilled e.g. liquid waste, explosive waste etc.
  • Waste that can be landfilled is categorised as inert, stable non reactive non-hazardous or hazardous.
  • Landfill Site Operators are responsible for ensuring their activities do not cause pollution of the environment or harm to human health in accordance with the relevant permit.

Background

Historically, decisions on the types of waste acceptable at landfills were entirely based on site-specific risk assessment. Licences controlled the quantities and types of waste to be accepted and often, in the case of hazardous waste, specified maximum loading rates for particular wastes or components substances. Landfill operators had to have systems (acceptance procedures) in place to ensure that incoming waste was within those limits.

Those producing waste or delivering waste for landfill had an obligation under the duty of care to ensure that the waste was properly described. This is still the case.

The Landfill Directive says that individual landfills accept only hazardous waste or non-hazardous waste or inert waste. This has ended the practice of co-disposal since July 2004. The move to dedicated landfills for hazardous waste has dictated tighter controls over site engineering and 'quality' of the waste going into the sites.

The Directive specifically restricts waste inputs in two ways:

  • By explicitly banning certain wastes from landfill
  • By applying acceptance criteria to waste destined for landfill. EU-wide acceptance criteria were adopted in December 2002.