This is an introduction to the rules for accepting waste at landfill sites. It represents our current understanding of the position and may be subject to change.
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
This note is concerned with the latter element - waste acceptance criteria (WAC).
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.
