Information for landfill operators who deal with municipal waste.
Municipal waste is all waste that is similar in nature and composition to household waste
The Government has revised its interpretation of ‘municipal’ waste. It now includes all waste collected by commercial operators that is similar to waste generated from households.
Previously municipal waste was classed as any waste under the possession or control of a waste authority. This was monitored through the Landfill Allowances and Trading Scheme (LATS). You can find information on LATS from the link below:
We are now going to measure the amount of biodegradable municipal waste (BMW) landfilled through Landfill Diversion Monitoring (LDM) instead of LATS. We will use this information to report progress on meeting the EU targets to reduce BMW landfilled.
Information for English landfill operators that accept ‘municipal’ waste
We will now use the data from quarterly permit returns to determine how much BMW has been landfilled in England. Defra has decided which European Waste Catalogue (EWC) codes represent municipal waste and has applied a biodegradability factor to each of these codes.
We sent the list of EWC codes that are now deemed municipal to all landfill operators in July 2011. If you would like a copy of this please contact the LDM team via email or call us on 03708 506 506.
The Landfill Diversion Monitoring (LDM) team will monitor data from landfill operators to make sure we are confident in the evidence we report to Europe. Where we identify issues over timeliness of reporting or quality of returns we will work with operators to improve data. We may ask questions on the data we’ve received and carry out audits to verify data quality.
Your waste return data should accurately reflect municipal waste landfilled, in particular:
- EWC codes
- tonnages
- origin
- disposal & recovery codes
- Local Authority collected waste (previously municipal source),
You can find guidance on how to complete your waste return form from the link below:
LATS annual landfill operator returns
For 2010/11 we waived the requirement to submit annual Landfill Operator returns under LATS Regulations.
We asked for an annual waste return in addition to the quarterly returns to meet permit conditions. This was a report of waste accepted at landfills from waste authority sources (that is, waste collected by or on behalf of a waste authority).
We expect to be able to waive the requirement for annual landfill operator returns in 2011/12 too, so long as quarterly permit returns provide reliable evidence of municipal waste disposed of at landfill. If this proves to be insufficient we may require the annual return to be reinstated at a later date.
Contact us
If you need anymore information please contact the LDM team:
or phone 03708 506 506.
