Web-Resol Tudo sobre Limpeza Urbana e Resíduos Sólidos!
Proposals that will change the way landfill operators fund the management and maintenance of landfill sites after they have closed have been announced by the Environment Agency. The proposals, which will ensure that landfill operators make cash available for the aftercare of their site from the first day of its operation, will alter the existing rules to reflect recent changes made by the EU Landfill Directive.
Landfill sites need to be managed long after they have been closed – some for up to 60 years – to ensure that they do not impact on the environment. The operator must pay for this. Under the current arrangements landfill operators only need to ensure that money for the aftercare/maintenance is available to the Environment Agency in the event that the business fails or the site is prematurely closed. This is normally done through agreements with banks or insurance companies who then cover the costs on the company‘‘s behalf.
Since 1994, UK law has required that licences for landfill sites can only be issued to someone who is ‘‘fit and proper‘‘ to hold a licence. One of the elements of fit and proper is that they must have made ‘‘financial provision sufficient to discharge the obligations of the licence‘‘. This requirement has been tightened by the implementation of the Landfill Regulations which give effect to the EU Landfill Directive.
Existing financial provision arrangements have been based on the assumption that the purpose of financial provision is to make a sum of money available to the Agency in the event that the licence holder defaults on their restoration and aftercare obligations in respect of the site.
Under the existing policy, many operators have chosen to meet the requirements by taking out a performance bond which will pay out a specified sum to the Agency if they fail to undertake the necessary closure and aftercare in respect of their site.
In future, the Environment Agency proposes to implement a policy which will make clear that financial provision is intended to be money set aside by the operator in order to enable them to finance their closure and aftercare responsibilities for their sites.
Artigos Relacionados
Check Also
Waste management poses challenges, but could unlock major environmental and economic gains
Every day, the city of Rio de Janeiro, one of the largest metropolises in the Southern Hemisphere, generates 17,000 tonnes of waste, ranging from large industrial debris to candy wrappers bought innocently at newspaper stands. While this waste presents a serious and urgent environmental challenge, it also fuels an increasingly significant portion of the economy, with benefits extending beyond financial gains. - When we look at developed European countries, many are already recycling between 40% and 50%, with some reaching 60%. From an economic standpoint, both recyclable materials and organic waste hold tremendous value - stated Adalberto Maluf, National Secretary for Environment and Environmental Quality at the Ministry of the Environment (MMA), during the Methane Forum: Climate Emergency Brake, at the Rio Nature and Climate Week. Citing a 2025 report, Maluf mentioned that Brazil literally throws away R$27 billion annually, while municipalities spend significantly more - R$45 billion - managing all this waste, often overlooking the environmental impact or economic potential buried in landfills and dumps. - We spend R$45 billion to collect and dispose of waste in landfills, yet we manage to recycle less than a third of the potential. I believe it will be necessary to review contracts, create performance-based remuneration mechanisms, and pay for both effectively sorted materials and those diverted from landfills - he added. According to the IBGE, 60.5% of Brazilian municipalities adopt some form of selective waste collection, and several initiatives serve as examples of how to manage city waste. In his panel presentation, Bernardo Ornelas, Project Coordinator at the Rio de Janeiro Municipal Urban Cleaning Company (Comlurb), highlighted Ecoparque do Caju, a national benchmark in waste management and recycling. There, received materials are sorted and can be used for biogas production, organic compounds for urban gardens, or human consumption, in the case of still...