On 4 December 2018, DEFRA published the 200-page final report of a 4-month study into Landfill Aftercare Scoping, under Project WR1919. Phoenix staff Howard and Tim Robinson had worked with Bob Gregory of GES and David Brown and Steven Shaw of Honace, to research and write the report. The project aims to identify the opportunities around landfill aftercare. It summarises the available techniques, potential benefits and assesses their suitability for UK landfills. It also identifies evidence gaps, improves existing datasets, and provide a basis for the strategic direction of future research in this area.
Objectives of the work were to provide a literature review of accelerated aftercare techniques, models of licence surrender criteria and improvements in landfill management techniques that would be suitable for during the aftercare period. The report includes a summary of such techniques, suitable case studies to quantify potential costs and benefits, and discuss issues which could affect their application in the UK.
Work also gathered data on the UK landfill population, to allow estimates to be made of the potential environmental and financial benefits of accelerated aftercare. Detailed interviews with major landfill operators allowed anonymised real cost data to be obtained for gas and leachate management, monitoring, capping, maintenance and the current regulatory burden. The report also includes an assessment of the current financial provision for aftercare.
