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Hazardous waste data: 2007

Summary

Nearly six and half million tonnes of hazardous wastes were sent for disposal and recovery in England and Wales in 2007. This apparent increase of 6.5 per cent is due to the under reporting of hazardous waste treated by one large operator in 2006 of 600,000 tonnes. Taking account of reporting errors there was an actual decrease of 2.5 per cent in 2007. The amount of hazardous waste sent to landfill fell marginally by 2.5 per cent to around 850,000 tonnes, with recycling and reuse also showing a decrease of seven per cent in 2007. A third of the total waste produced went to a single treatment facility in the North East.

Trends

  • Specialist landfills able to continue to accept hazardous wastes have now all been permitted.  It appears that a new baseline of hazardous waste to landfill has been established, shown by its marginal decrease in 2007.  However, this will only be confirmed in later years.
  • There are 24 hazardous waste only landfills in England and Wales; 17 merchant and 7 restricted user. However there are also around 50 non hazardous landfills that have a mono cell for the disposal of stable non reactive hazardous wastes e.g. asbestos and gypsum.
  • Although recycling and reuse of hazardous waste appears to have decreased by seven per cent in 2007, the movement through transfer stations for recovery purposes increased by 15 per cent.
  • Hazardous waste from waste and water treatment plants continued to increase in 2007 by nearly 10 per cent, the biggest increase of any waste stream.
  • The South East was the largest exporter of hazardous wastes in 2007 with the North West and East Midlands importing the largest quantities

Do you want to find out more?

The charts on the right provide further explanation and interpretation. You can also download a set of data tables from the link above that summarise waste movements and trends and show how much hazardous waste was produced and deposited in 2007 in England and Wales. 

You can access more detailed data tables for each region from the Regional Data pages.