New Research shows landfills present 1000 year liability

Research just published (September 2004) which was commissioned by the Environment Agency has shown that a complete rethink is urgently needed to re-assess the length of time that a hazardous waste¹ landfill will naturally decompose and flush-out to the point that no liability remains to the environment.

At the moment the UK Environment Agency requires all landfill operators to design, and then set aside funding for liabilities for durations extending no more than the 50 to 100 years of “aftercare”.

This is because it was assumed that natural composting, and then flushing, of the waste in modern licensed landfills would take place over an unrealistically short timescale.

Old newspapers can be seen in old landfills which remain dry and unrotted for a great many years.

What is of even more concern is that half of all hazardous waste will take double this time, or two thousand years to become harmless to the environment

This is a major concern since most lining systems will not in all probability last for more than a few decades. The long timescales now being cited, also make geological effects far more important as factors. Geological events such as erosion, earthquake and groundwater level changes will now require much more detailed consideration.

We said this many years before in 1993. We said then that the timescales being allowed for Municipal Waste stabilisation were too low. We published an article at that time on the “Timescale of Completion”.

1 - Hazardous Waste as defined in the Waste Acceptance Criteria which became law in July 2005.