§ Mr. CousinsTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs which sites, broken down by region, are licensable for disposal of 1769W toxic waste; what the most recent return of annual disposal of toxic waste is; and whether each site will be licensable after the EU directives on toxic waste disposal have been fully implemented. [155105]
§ Mr. Morley[holding answer 23 February 2004]: I have placed a list, compiled by the Environment Agency, in the Library. This list identifies all the facilities, in alphabetical order, that had hazardous waste consigned to them in the year 2002 in England and Wales. Disposal, recovery, treatment and transfer stations are included. Sites where wastes were disposed of on the site of production are not included. The location and total quantity of hazardous waste received in 2002 are given. Most, if not all, of the non-landfill sites on this list will continue to be licensed to take hazardous waste in the future.
In terms of the impact of the Landfill Directive, the Agency are considering applications for hazardous waste landfills from operators wishing to continue to accept hazardous waste after the ban on co-disposal (of hazardous and non-hazardous waste) comes into force in July this year in accordance with the EU Landfill Directive. In addition, other landfill sites, classified as non-hazardous, may opt to accept stable non-reactive waste in separately constructed cells. Both these issues are being kept under regular review. Not all hazardous wastes are toxic and the Landfill Directive specifically bans hazardous wastes that are explosive, corrosive, oxidising or flammable from being disposed of to landfill.