§ Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domerasked Her Majesty's Government:
Given their plan to reduce the number of sites which can receive hazardous waste next year, what volume of hazardous waste the United Kingdom has provision for over the next six years. [HL5447]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Whitty)There are no government plans to reduce the number of sites that can receive hazardous waste. From July 2002, the Landfill Directive required operators to specify whether their sites will be inert, non-hazardous or hazardous waste landfills. In July 2004, when co-disposal of waste ends, those landfill sites classified as hazardous in 2002 can alter their classification to non-hazardous. Following this reclassification exercise, and working from the current information supplied by the waste management industry, we believe that a relatively small number of sites will continue as hazardous waste landfills. However, also from July 2004, the Landfill Directive permits stable non-reactive hazardous waste to be disposed of in a separate cell in non-hazardous landfills.
Analysis conducted by the Hazardous Waste Forum shows that there is likely to be sufficient capacity in non-hazardous and hazardous waste landfill to deal with hazardous waste arisings. It is estimated that approximately 3 million tonnes of hazardous waste will require landfilling each year.
§ Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domerasked Her Majesty's Government:
How much hazardous waste they expect will be imported from other countries in the next six years. [HL5448]
§ Lord WhittyIt is difficult to predict expected imports for the next six years. However, the total hazardous waste imported to the United Kingdom for the years 1996 to 2001 ranged from approximately 90,000 to 182,000 tonnes per annum.