Landfill Directive – Hazardous Waste Implications

On the 16th July 2004 the full requirements of the Landfill Directive came into force, stopping the co-disposal of hazardous and non-hazardous waste. Currently there is no hazardous waste landfill facility in Northern Ireland and the number of sites throughout the UK has reduced drastically to 12.

In addition the European Waste Catalogue (EWC), which identifies hazardous wastes and is used to determine if a waste is hazardous for the purpose of the landfill regulations, has been revised to include a number of new entries such as;

• Fluorescent tubes
• Batteries – lead, nickel cadmium, mercury containing
• TV Sets
• Computer Monitors

These hazardous waste streams are no longer acceptable at local landfill, and care must therefore be taken to segregate this waste from the waste producer’s general, non-hazardous waste.

Under the Duty of Care regulations it is also the waste producer’s responsibility, to ensure that waste is correctly classified and described using the EWC codes and that the proper licensed disposal route is used.

Although no local landfill facility is available for these waste streams in Northern Ireland, McQuillan’s hazardous waste division, McQuillan Envirocare, operates a waste transfer station, licensed to accept a range of both special and hazardous wastes, including those detailed above.

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