Doubts over hazardwaste disposal

Concern remains high in the non-ferrous metals sector that, in the wake of the ban on co-disposal, landfills could be stopped from taking some of the industry's hazardous wastes. Spent pot linings from primary aluminium producers are a particular problem due to the lack of treatment technologies enabling the waste to meet the landfill waste acceptance criteria (WAC) that come into force in July 2005.

Since 16 July, the landfill regulations have required the pre-treatment of all hazardous wastes prior to disposal, and the deposit of hazardous wastes in special landfill sites which can no longer accept non-hazardous waste.

So far the Environment Agency has issued ten pollution prevention and control (PPC) permits for hazardous landfills but only four - operated by Atlantic Waste Services, Zero Waste, WRG and Impetus Waste - are operational merchant sites capable of accepting a wide range of hazardous wastes. Moreover, all except WRG's Winterton site in North Lincolnshire are in the Teesside area.

Two applications for merchant sites - both for sites that would have taken a wide range of wastes - have been refused. One was from Cleansing Service Group, which last year received a record ?250,000 fine for waste offences.

In addition, 12 permits have been issued for separate cells for stable, non-reactive hazardous waste. But most are for asbestos only, with Cory Environmental's Himley Quarry site near Dudley the only one in operation that can take a wide range of wastes.

However, for time being the capacity shortfall is less serious than might have been anticipated, because some former co-disposal landfill sites are also accepting hazardous wastes. In April, the Environment Department (DEFRA) decided that it would allow these sites to continue accepting hazardous waste in accordance with their existing waste management licences - provided they no longer take non-hazardous waste and have applied for a PPC permit.

The situation is leading some waste producers, such as the non-ferrous metals sector, to warn that issues are being masked. Since last year the sector has been warning the Government that the shortage of hazardous landfill capacity, the WAC and the requirement to pre-treat hazardous wastes could leave it with nowhere to send some wastes.

The non-ferrous sector faces two separate problems. One is that various wastes including dross mill dusts and spent pot linings from primary aluminium smelters will probably fail to comply with the WAC next July unless new treatment techniques are developed. The wastes in question fail the WAC leaching test limits for fluoride and for metals including zinc, barium and beryllium.

The picture is clouded, however, by the fact that the Government has yet to issue acceptance criteria for "monolithic wastes" a category that is likely to include spent pot linings. Leaching limits for monolithic wastes are likely to be less demanding than for granular wastes.

The UK's three primary aluminium smelters - Alcan's facilities at Lynemouth in Northumberland and Lochaber in western Scotland, plus Anglesey Aluminium - produce some 10,000 tonnes of spent pot linings annually.

Several treatment processes are being tested which produce greater volumes of less hazardous waste. Although the output could be used in construction or by cement kilns as alternative feedstock, the costs are high, treatment in cement kilns is unpopular with the public and the treatment processes need much larger volumes of spent pot linings than the UK's smelters generate.

Alcan's situation was exacerbated when the Agency rejected its application for an in-house landfill at Lynemouth. The company is continuing to landfill spent pot linings from both of its smelters at Lynemouth under the terms of its waste management licence until the Planning Inspectorate hears its appeal against the decision.

The second issue is that at least some operators of hazardous landfills have been told to classify wastes as "hazardous" when they display the property of releasing toxic or very toxic gases in contact with water, air or an acid - known by the code H12.

The issue first emerged just one week before the co-disposal ban took effect, when Agency permitting officers sought to include a ban on such wastes at WRG's Winterton site.

At least two merchant landfills - Winterton and Atlantic Waste's King's Cliffe site near Peterborough - have been asked to assess the potential effects on landfill leachate of H12 wastes produced by the non-ferrous sector and whether the leachate could affect the landfill liner.

Vapour was seen coming off some waste at King's Cliffe during a routine Agency inspection on 12 August. According to Agency inspector John Sweeney, the operator said the waste was a by-product from lead battery recycling. "Waste shouldn't arrive in this condition," said Mr Sweeney, "so we asked Atlantic to go back to their customer and ask if the waste needs further pre-treatment."

King's Cliffe was forced to close on 16 July for ten days because it had not completed a review - as required by its permit - of the site's potential to pollute groundwater.

Atlantic still feels aggrieved by the episode, arguing that it was given only 11 days' notice that the assessment had to be completed by 16 July, while other operators were given until 16 October.

The Agency is conducting "a number of investigations" into the site, with legal action a possibility. On 12 May it served an enforcement notice on Atlantic after discovering waste that had spilled onto a non-engineered part of the site.

Mr Sweeney said that Atlantic had also allowed the height of tipped waste to exceed agreed limits - in some cases by five metres or so - but this is disputed by the company. The waste in question has been temporarily capped pending the outcome of a planning application to allow a higher contour level.

The non-ferrous wastes under the microscope include lead-contaminated furnace slag from the UK's only recycler of car batteries, HJ Enthoven, as well as dross mill dust, air pollution control (APC) residues and spent pot linings from the aluminium industry. The copper and magnesium industries may be similarly affected.

"Current legislation is causing us concerns about the sustainability of the industry," said Enthoven's David Wheeler. As well as the effects of the co-disposal ban, the company is worried about the proposed changes to the system of "carriers' rounds" under the draft hazardous waste regulations.

"H12 is a massive issue for us," said Annelli Gilbert of the Non-Ferrous Alliance. "If landfill operators cannot convince the Agency that their procedures can adequately manage H12 material they will be stopped from taking it."

Some dross is being pre-treated by facilities including a recycling plant in Staffordshire operated by JBM International subsidiary Plasmet. But some of the treatment plants are themselves finding it hard to find landfills that will take their outputs, and the Non-Ferrous Alliance has asked the Agency for a list of companies that can offer pre-treatment technologies. At least one secondary refinery is having to store its APC residues - although it is unclear if the problem is commercial or technical.

The sector is also unhappy that provisions allowing weaker acceptance criteria to be set for landfills on the basis of site-specific risk assessments are limited to so-called "mono-fill" landfills that accept only one waste stream. Between them, non-ferrous companies do not produce enough waste of a similar nature to justify the creation of a mono-fill site to serve the sector.

"We can't see that it would be a problem to apply a risk assessment system to any hazardous landfill for some wastes until treatment facilities come on stream," said Ms Gilbert.

Republished with permission of ENDS Report