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A landfill site is a site for the disposal of waste materials. Landfill is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of the waste with daily, intermediate and final covers began in 1940s. In the past, refuse was simply left in piles or thrown into pits.
Incineration is a waste treatment process that involves the combustion of organic substances contained in waste materials. Incineration and other high-temperature waste treatment systems are described as "thermal treatment". Incineration of waste materials converts the waste into ash, flue gas and heat. The ash is mostly formed by the inorganic constituents of the waste and may take the form of solid lumps or particulates carried by the flue gas. The flue gases must be cleaned of gaseous and particulate pollutants before they are dispersed into the atmosphere. In some cases, the heat generated by incineration can be used to generate electric power.
The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) is an executive agency of the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). The RPA delivers the European Union (EU) Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) payments to farmers and traders in England, paying out over £2 billion in subsidies each year. The Agency managing more than 40 schemes, the largest of which the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) paying more than £1.5 billion to around 105,000 claimants a year.
Lats or LATS may refer to:
Municipal solid waste (MSW), commonly known as trash or garbage in the United States and rubbish in Britain, is a waste type consisting of everyday items that are discarded by the public. "Garbage" can also refer specifically to food waste, as in a garbage disposal; the two are sometimes collected separately. In the European Union, the semantic definition is 'mixed municipal waste,' given waste code 20 03 01 in the European Waste Catalog. Although the waste may originate from a number of sources that has nothing to do with a municipality, the traditional role of municipalities in collecting and managing these kinds of waste have produced the particular etymology 'municipal.'
A mechanical biological treatment (MBT) system is a type of waste processing facility that combines a sorting facility with a form of biological treatment such as composting or anaerobic digestion. MBT plants are designed to process mixed household waste as well as commercial and industrial wastes.
Landfills in the United Kingdom were historically the most commonly used option for waste disposal. Up until the 1980s, policies of successive governments had endorsed the "dilute and disperse" approach. Britain has since adopted the appropriate European legislation and landfill sites are generally operated as full containment facilities. However, many dilute and disperse sites remain throughout Britain.
The Landfill Directive, more formally Council Directive 1999/31/EC of 26 April 1999 is a European Union directive that regulates waste management of landfills in the European Union. It was implemented by its Member States by 16 July 2001.
Green waste, also known as "biological waste," is any organic waste that can be composted. It is most usually composed of refuse from gardens such as grass clippings or leaves, and domestic or industrial kitchen wastes. Green waste does not include things such as dried leaves, pine straw, or hay. Such materials are rich in carbon and considered "brown wastes," while green wastes contain high in concentrations of nitrogen. Green waste can be used to increase the efficiency of many composting operations and can be added to soil to sustain local nutrient cycling.
Biodegradable waste includes any organic matter in waste which can be broken down into carbon dioxide, water, methane or simple organic molecules by micro-organisms and other living things by composting, aerobic digestion, anaerobic digestion or similar processes. In waste management, it also includes some inorganic materials which can be decomposed by bacteria. Such materials include gypsum and its prodcts such as plasterboard and other simple organic sulfates which can decompose to yield hydrogen sulphide in anaerobic land-fill conditions.
A landfill tax or levy is a form of tax that is applied in some countries to increase the cost of landfill. The tax is typically levied in units of currency per unit of weight or volume. The tax is in addition to the overall cost of landfill and forms a proportion of the gate fee.
Waste disposal authorities (WDA) were established in the United Kingdom following the Environmental Protection Act 1990. WDAs are in charge of the use of funds from Council Tax to facilitate the disposal of municipal waste. WDAs must manage waste which is collected by local councils. In the case of unitary authorities waste disposal authorities are the same as the waste collection authority. WDAs are responsible for developing and implementing plans to deal with municipal waste.
Biodrying is the process by which biodegradable waste is rapidly heated through initial stages of composting to remove moisture from a waste stream and hence reduce its overall weight. In biodrying processes, the drying rates are augmented by biological heat in addition to forced aeration. The major portion of biological heat, naturally available through the aerobic degradation of organic matter, is utilized to evaporate surface and bound water associated with the mixed sludge. This heat generation assists in reducing the moisture content of the biomass without the need for supplementary fossil fuels, and with minimal electricity consumption. It can take as little as 8 days to dry waste in this manner. This enables reduced costs of disposal if landfill is charged on a cost per tonne basis. Biodrying may be used as part of the production process for refuse-derived fuels. Biodrying does not however greatly affect the biodegradability of the waste and hence is not stabilised. Biodried waste will still break down in a landfill to produce landfill gas and hence potentially contribute to climate change. In the UK this waste will still impact upon councils LATS allowances. Whilst biodrying is increasingly applied within commercial mechanical biological treatment (MBT) plants, it is also still subject to on-going research and development.
In 2015, 43.5% of the United Kingdom's municipal waste was recycled, composted or broken down by anaerobic digestion. The majority of recycling undertaken in the United Kingdom is done by statutory authorities, although commercial and industrial waste is chiefly processed by private companies. Local Authorities are responsible for the collection of municipal waste and operate contracts which are usually kerbside collection schemes. The Household Waste Recycling Act 2003 required local authorities in England to provide every household with a separate collection of at least two types of recyclable materials by 2010. Recycling policy is devolved to the administrations of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales who set their own targets, but all statistics are reported to Eurostat.
The National Waste Strategy is a policy of the Parliament of the United Kingdom as well as the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The development of national waste strategies is intended to foster a move to sustainability in waste management within the United Kingdom.
Food waste in the United Kingdom is a subject of environmental, and socioeconomic concern that has received widespread media coverage and been met with varying responses from government. Since 1915, food waste has been identified as a considerable problem and has been the subject of ongoing media attention, intensifying with the launch of the "Love Food, Hate Waste" campaign in 2007. Food waste has been discussed in newspaper articles, news reports and television programmes, which have increased awareness of it as a public issue. To tackle waste issues, encompassing food waste, the government-funded "Waste & Resources Action Programme" (WRAP) was created in 2000.
Waste management laws govern the transport, treatment, storage, and disposal of all manner of waste, including municipal solid waste, hazardous waste, and nuclear waste, among many other types. Waste laws are generally designed to minimize or eliminate the uncontrolled dispersal of waste materials into the environment in a manner that may cause ecological or biological harm, and include laws designed to reduce the generation of waste and promote or mandate waste recycling. Regulatory efforts include identifying and categorizing waste types and mandating transport, treatment, storage, and disposal practices.
SUEZ Recycling and Recovery UK Ltd, formerly SITA UK Limited, is a British waste management company, established in 1988. It was previously called Sitaclean Technology. It began as a provider of local authority services, with its first municipal services contract in Erewash, Derbyshire in 1989. Suez has expanded its business through a combination of new contracts, joint venture partnerships and acquisitions.
It is estimated that 290 million tonnes of waste was produced in the United Kingdom in 2008 but volumes are declining. In 2012 municipal solid waste generation was almost 30 million tonnes, according to Waste Atlas Platform.
References
- ↑ DEFRA Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme Introduction Archived 9 December 2006 at the Wayback Machine , www.defra.gov.uk, Retrieved 29 November 2006
- ↑ Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme a Practical Guide Archived 10 December 2006 at the Wayback Machine , www.defra.gov.uk, Retrieved 29 November 2006
- ↑ Waste and Emissions Trading Act 2003
- ↑ Report on the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme 2006/2006 Archived 20 December 2006 at the Wayback Machine , www.environment-agency.gov.uk, Retrieved 29 November 2006
- ↑ Watson, David (February 2013). "Municipal Waste Management in the United Kingdom". eea.europa.eu. European Environment Agency. Archived from the original on 4 August 2015. Retrieved 1 August 2015. Alt URL
- ↑ WRWA to meet Defra over "serious flaws" in LATS guidance, www.letsrecycle.com, Retrieved 23 November 2006