The Waste Strategy 2007 has been published, and yes, of course, poor old landfill gets the “worst” (least preferred option) ranking in the waste heirarchy again!

Seriously though, there was never going to be any change to the requirements for landfills including the Construction Quality Assurance requirements for landfills, but we thought we would post this anyway!

Here is what Let’s Recyle have been saying about the Waste Strategy as far is it relates to landfills:-

Specific material type landfill bans on agenda
(24.05.07)

The first three chapters of Waste Strategy 2007 contain a number of key areas of interest including the suggestion of radical future approaches to the landfilling of biodegradable and recyclable waste.

Landfill bans
The document points to experiences on the Continent where a number of countries, such as Germany, France and Swdedn, have imposed strict bans on what can be landfilled.

The strategy said that Defra wil be “consulting, subject to further analysis, on the introduction of further restrictions on the landfilling of biodegradable wastes and recyclable materials.”

Explaining the thinking behind this, the strategy says that other EU states “have found that imposing legal restrictions on the types of waste that can be landfilled has encouraged higher rates of recycling and recovery.”

The Department also noted how these have been introduced with significant lead-times, as in Germany.

Hierarchy
The strategy repeats the waste hierarchy which has five levels. These are (the best) waste prevention; reuse; recycle/compost; energy recovery; disposal (the worst).

NORTHERN IRELAND INTERIM GUIDANCE ON LANDFILL CLOSURE: CAPPING AND RESTORATION:  The Environmental and Heritage Service haas released Interim Guidance on Landfill Closure: Capping and Restoration for EHS staff and operators. The procedures may be applied to both existing and new landfill sites. The guidance document sets out a brief overview of the main aspects to be considered when establishing the capping standards at landfill sites. More information here. 

New Construction Design and Safety (CDM) regulations came into force last month. However, many have wondered whether the perpetuation of these regulations, given their cost, was justified and whether there would not be better ways to spend the large amount of money incurred in compliance.

The NCE (the magazine issued weekly to all Civil Engineers) in their 26 April edition, provides a letter in response to a paper written by two institution members. The paper critises the old regulations as most likely having been ineffective in reducing site accidents. It has been said that other measures were being implemented over the same period might have been largely or wholly responsible for improvements to safety when they eventually came some years after CDM implementation.

The paper backs up the points made with data from the HSE’s records, and this week’s issue shows that despite criticism from the HSE, the authors continue to question of the ‘value for money merits’ of previous CDM Regulations, while not for one minute suggesting that the drive for safety should be relaxed.

There is also concern that the new Regulations will cost more than previously.

The Construction Quality Assurance (CQA) professional will be thankful that he does not have to take primary responsibility for site safety, particularly at this time.

He /she will not need to undertstand the detail of these new regulations, and the CQA staff on any project will continue for their part to work within the Health & Safety at Work Act requirements. These remain unchanged, and require them with all others on site, to work with due diligence to ensure the safety of all their co-workers.  

Nevertheless, the CQA staff on site will be concerned if the changeover causes any reduction in site safety supervision by the Principal Contractor. It should not, but constant vigilence will be needed, as always to ensure Health & Safety to very high levels is maintained on all landfill capping and restoration contracts.

There will be a strong workload for landfill capping contractors this summer due to the closure of many landfills during 2006, which has taken place as a result of the ending of the grace period for the transition from Waste Management Licences to PPC Permits under the IPPC legislation.

Many landfill owners which did not apply for PPC Permits, and instead closed their sites, were able to keep them open until the end of the year, and even those closing earlier missed the summer (good weather) earthworks window for 2006. Therefore, they have been lining up their projects for this summer.

Landfill owners are required to cap and restore their sites under all legislation (old Waste Regulations and within their PPC permits) throughout Europe.

Although most savvy operators are actually sealing their sites as early as possible, and before capping, in order not to lose valuable landfill gas, which is utilised almost universally now (at larger sites) for power generation and the electricity revenue that provides.

Nevertheless, by permanently capping the site as soon as possible they provide themselves with the best permanent installation for leachate extraction at the earliest opportunity. Leachate collection from the gas wells will be minimised as soon as possible, minimising leachate generated, and reducing leachate disposal costs. At the same time the installed permanent leachate pumps will ensure maximum landfill gas yield by avoiding some wells being effectively blocked to gas production, by the presence of standing leachate.

For those. like Rowe Environmental, working in landfill Construction Quality Assurance, the summer also looks like being a very busy time.

Ken Rowe - Rowe Environmental