Environment

Impact of Landfill

Landfill is no longer an environmentally sound disposal option, as it creates greenhouse gases that are bad for the environment. There are growing financial penalties for continuing to rely on landfill for the waste we don’t recycle.

The Government’s Landfill Tax is costing local authorities millions of pounds each year. Every time we landfill a tonne of waste we pay £32 in tax, which will rise to £48 a tonne by 2010.

The targets set by the Government mean that each Council is given a yearly tonnage allowance of waste that it can send to landfill. That allowance reduces each year until 2020 and for every tonne sent over the limit, councils including Bradford will be fined £150 per tonne on top of the charges for landfill and tax.

Reducing Waste

As our population grows, the amount of waste increases.

The best and cheapest alternatives to landfill continue to be for everyone to ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’. If all residents across the district take responsibility for their waste and do everything they can the amount of household waste left for disposal could be reduced by as much as 50%.

Bradford Council remains committed to increasing recycling and composting through the services it provides and will continue to raise awareness and encourage residents to take responsibility and reduce the amount of waste going into the residual bin.