Summary
There were 684 million cubic metres of remaining capacity at permitted landfill sites in England and Wales at the end of 2007. This provided nearly seven years of landfill life life for non-hazardous wastes at 2007 rates of disposal.
Overall capacity decreased by less than 1.5 per cent compared to 2006 but by 10 per cent since 2001. This was mainly due to compliance with the Landfill Directive requirement that all sites that do not meet its stringent requirements have to close as soon as possible and no later than July 2009.
Trends
At the end of 2007:
- 18 per cent of capacity was in inert sites
- 72 per cent of capacity was in non hazardous sites
- three per cent of capacity was in hazardous merchant sites
- seven per cent of capacity was in restricted user sites (non hazardous and hazardous)
Over the past three years, voidspace for non hazardous wastes has decreased whilst inert void has increased.
The North East had the largest fall in capacity over the year. This was due to the refusal of environmental permits for some large sites and the over-reporting of void for one site in 2006 by 3 million cubic metres.
The East Midlands had the largest increase in capacity because of two newly permitted inert sites with a combined void of 22 million cubic metres in 2007.
Do you want to find out more?
Please click on the links above to open downloadable data tables showing remaining capacity at permitted landfill sites in 2007 and trends for England and Wales. The accompanying graphs and charts provide more information.
You can access more detailed data and tables for each region from the Regional Data pages.
