The topic of landfills is often one that people don’t want to hear about. It’s a topic that rarely crops up in the pub or on your lunch break, and any scare tactics tend to be brushed over without much though.

The very real truth is that our landfills don’t have long left, and the numbers are even lower for hazardous waste landfills.

What do the stats say?

The figures below (000’s cubic metres) show the capacity of which our landfills have left, both in each region and in England and Wales as a whole.

The numbers slowly but steadily decline over the period, from 758, 558 at the end of 2000, to 539,981 in 2012 – this is all while the amount of waste we produce grows and grows and the population increases and our consumption grows rapidly.

Key:
  • Inert Waste – Waste that is neither chemically or biologically reactive and will not decompose
  • Non-inert waste – Waste that is gradually decompose or rot
  • Restricted user: Both non-hazardous and hazardous landfill sites that are restricted

eng-wales-landfil stats

How long do we actually have left?

Looking at the figures from the above table, taking the stats for the end of 2012, the figures are worrying. According to the Environment Agency, it was estimated that we would run out of room to accommodate non-hazardous waste in the UK in around 8.5 years. Of course, with the population growth and huge consumption increases since 2012 – this will be considerably less in 2014.

Time left

Looking at England and Wales as whole:

england time left

What are the options?

Our landfills are running out and some of the alternatives, like incineration, can be just as harmful to our environment, and equally as damaging. The most effective way to raise the number of years left in our landfills is to reduce the amount of waste that actually goes into them. Below are some helpful articles on how this can be done:

Image by Alan Levine on Flickr

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