What is a landfill
site?
A landfill site is an
area of land that is used to dump rubbish, either directly on the ground
(landraising) or filling an unwanted hole in the ground (landfilling).
Why do we need
landfill sites?
We need landfill
sites to dispose of rubbish that cannot be reused or recycled. New technologies
are being developed to reduce the amount of rubbish that is sent to landfill
each year, for instance Energy Recovery Facilities (ERF) and composting. For
more information see our rubbish and recycling page.
What type of
rubbish does a landfill site contain?
Landfill sites
contain both household and commercial rubbish.
Household rubbish is
mostly organic, for example food, paper, cardboard or wood. Other household
rubbish contains plastic or tin packaging. Sites filled up before 1960
contained very little organic matter. This is because most people burned their
rubbish on open fires at home. Find out more about what’s in our rubbish.
Most of the rubbish
put in landfill sites today is from construction and commercial businesses,
such as soil, concrete and brick rubble. This is known as inert waste because
it is unlikely to react with other rubbish, making it relatively safe for
landfill.
A lot of inert waste is
used for building roads on the landfill site or to cover the site when it is
full.
Why does the rubbish
produce gas and liquids?
Organic waste
produces bacteria which break the rubbish down. The decaying rubbish produces
weak acidic chemicals which combine with liquids in the waste to form leachate
and landfill gas.
What is leachate?
Leachate is the
liquid produced in a landfill site. As the acids from decaying waste react with
other rubbish, the leachate can become toxic. To prevent leachate contaminating
nearby streams, it is collected and disposed of at a waste water treatment
plant.
What is landfill
gas?
Landfill gases
contain methane and carbon dioxide, plus small amounts of other gases that
produce a sweet, sickly smell. Methane is flammable and can cause explosions,
so some landfill sites burn off the gas or use it to generate electricity.
One tonne of
degradable rubbish produces about 400–500 cubic metres of landfill gas. As a
result the gas emissions from landfill sites must be constantly monitored for
many years after the sites have stopped accepting rubbish.
Here are some good facts about landfill sites in the
UK.
Each year about 145 million
tonnes of solid waste are produced in the UK all coming from households,
commerce and industry, including construction and demolition. Over 60% of this
waste is received for disposal. Approximately 20% of this is household waste,
40% industrial & commercial waste and 40% construction & demolition
waste all in a landfill site (source: WRAP).
As well as the 145 million
tonnes of solid waste, even larger amounts come from other sources such as
agriculture, mining and quarrying, and dredged spoils. Altogether, approximately
400 million tonnes of waste are produced each year. Half of all waste recycled
is in the form of aggregates for the construction industry (source: WRAP).
The UK dumps more household
waste into landfill than any other country in the European Union, according to
research by the Local Government Association.
Italy dumps
about 19 million tonnes of household rubbish in the ground, Spain 15 million
tonnes and France 12 million tonnes. Under the EU landfill directive, the UK
must reduce landfilling to 75 per cent of 1995 levels by 2010, 50 per cent by
2013 and 35 per cent by 2020. Landfill allowances given to councils are fewer
in number each year to cut the national rate.
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