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Landfilling of Waste
4. Waste Acceptance Procedures
4.1 Definition and strategy
4.2 Waste categories
4.3 Acceptance criteria
4.4 Test levels
4.5 Registration and acceptance procedures
This chapter will be replaced, in the long term, by separate guidelines from the Danish Environmental Protection Agency. This chapter describes only the principles of the future procedures for acceptance of waste at landfills. Until final guidelines are available, the principles of this chapter must be applied. See also sect. 1.2: "Scope and Delimitation of the Guidelines".
4.1 Definition and strategy
The most significant environmental protection factor in landfilling of waste must depend on the nature of the waste to be landfilled. Thus, prior to acceptance of waste at landfills, the short- and long-term impact of the waste on the environment must be considered. Waste going to landfill must have a composition that can ensure that all active environmental protection systems in the area where the waste is placed can be made passive as soon as possible. Waste must not constitute a potential pollution risk beyond the period where leachate can realistically be collected and treated, and control and inspection of the closed landfill can be carried out. In respect of waste going to landfill it must thus be reasonably certain that leachate from the waste will be acceptable in the groundwater of the relevant area within 30 years of landfilling.
It is intended to divide waste into types the properties of which can be expected – directly or after treatment - to be of the same nature, and thereby determine at which landfill unit the waste can be placed. This permits an appropriate and separate treatment and monitoring of leachate from different types of waste.
Furthermore, it is intended to assess if the waste is indeed suitable for landfilling in its present form.
No waste may be diluted in order to meet the above criteria. Any mixing of different types of waste for the purpose of changing the composition and behaviour of the individual types of waste with time, cannot be accepted.
Waste that can be treated in other environmentally sound manners by existing methods should not be landfilled. Waste suitable for incineration and recyclable material therefore should not normally be landfilled.
4.2 Waste categories
Waste categories that can be accepted are determined on the basis of available units at the relevant landfill, cf. Chapter 3, Table 3.2.
In general, three categories are established - with the following characteristics:
Inert waste
 | Category I: Inert waste is |
inorganic waste containing no reactive (neither physically nor chemically) substances. The release of substances and the eco-toxicity must at all times be negligible.
Mineral waste
| Category II: Mineral waste is |
inorganic mineral substance with low organic content. Its ability to dissolve in or react chemically with water must be limited.
Mixed wastes
| Category III: Mixed wastes are |
a mixture of organic and inorganic substances which cannot be separated or can be separated only with difficulty and with as excessive consumption of resources. Waste must have a limited content of organic, slowly degradable substances and must not have a high content of readily soluble mineral components.
Potential problem wastes
If waste does not fall directly under one of the above categories, it must be regarded as potential problem wastes. Such waste must be further examined before it can be assigned to one of the categories. Alternatively, the waste must be pre-treated.
List of examples
Table 4.1 contains examples of waste types which are likely to fall under one of the Categories I, II or III. Any final confirmation thereof must be based on the acceptance criteria outlined in sect. 4.3.
Table 4.1
Types of waste that are likely to fall under one of the categories defined above.
| CATEGORY I INERT WASTE |
CATEGORY II MINERAL WASTE |
CATEGORY III MIXED WASTES |
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| EXAMPLES OF WASTE TYPES |
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4.3 Acceptance criteria
It is the governing principle that waste can be accepted at landfills on the basis of a positive list drawn up in the light of the knowledge of the origin, composition and properties of the waste.
Any positive list must be specific and related to each single landfill unit at the facility. The positive list is to be based on the categories of waste defined in sect. 4.2 out of regard for the protection of:
| the surrounding environment; |
| the environmental protection systems; |
| stabilising processes in the waste; and |
| occupational health and safety. |
Positive list
Basically, a positive list must be restrictive, and it should address only a specific landfill. A waste type should be included on the positive list for a landfill only on the basis of an assessment of the anticipated short-term and long-term behaviour of the waste in relation to the relevant waste category as well as the environmental protection systems at the landfill. This may be done by effecting a thorough testing of the waste. On this basis it must be possible to substantiate if the waste is behaving in accordance with the criteria for one of the waste categories.
The criteria determining whether or not a type of waste can be included on a positive list are as yet uncertain, and the scientific data basis is still vague. At the national level as well as at EU level work is ongoing to develop final criteria. Until such final criteria are available, the following guidelines can be applied:
Table 4.2
Waste categories
| CRITERIA | CATEGORY I INERT WASTE |
CATEGORY II MINERAL WASTE |
CATEGORY III MIXED WASTES |
| Ignition loss | <2% | <5% | 20% 1) |
| Content of environmentally harmful substances | A | B | B |
| Quantification of potentially leachable matter | C | D | - |
| Knowledge of chemical composition | E | E | F |
| Expected leachate composition | G | H | H |
| 1) For certain types of waste the ignition loss cannot
be verified. Instead, an assessment in terms of volume must be made - related to the
ignition loss. Desired organic half-life > 15 years. A: Waste must not be capable of releasing (by evaporation, dissolution or leaching) significant quantities of environmentally harmful substances (neither organic nor inorganic). B: Waste should not be capable of discharging (by evaporation, dissolution or leaching) significant quantities of environmentally harmful substances (neither organic nor inorganic). C: Waste’s quantitative content of potentially leachable pollutants and their identity should be known. Significant quantities of inorganic substances – including salts and trace elements - must not be leachable from the waste - in the short or long term. D: Waste’s quantitative content of potentially leachable pollutants and their identity should be known. E: 95% of the total chemical composition of the waste should be known, and the chemical state in the short and the long term should be described, at least as a type (oxidising/reducing, pH/alkalinity). F: 95% of the total chemical composition of a waste type should be capable of description, at least at waste fraction level. The chemical state of the fractions in the short and the long term should be capable of being described, at least as a type (oxidising/reducing, pH/alkalinity). G: The composition of leachate should not at any time have any significant ecotoxicological effect, and it must be rendered probable that the leachate can at all times be accepted directly in the groundwater around the landfill. H: It should be rendered probable that leachate can be accepted within a period of not more than 30 years in the groundwater around the landfill. Leachate may not exhibit any significant ecotoxicological effect that could constitute a risk to the leachate treatment system and the discharge therefrom. |
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Regarding the release and leaching of environmentally harmful substances, please refer to Annex A.
4.4 Test levels
Before any waste can be accepted for landfilling, it must be submitted to a hierarchical test system, consisting of three test levels:
Test level 1: Characterisation;
Test level 2: Compliance;
Test level 3: Identification.
The extent of testing is decreasing in relation to increased advance knowledge of the composition and properties of the waste.
Test level 1
Test level 1 is mandatory for the approval of a waste type for a positive list. Level 1 will be a comprehensive and documentative testing (cf. Annex A) and must provide the reference for tests at levels 2 and 3. In principle, it is to be performed only once for a waste type - or if the properties of the waste change.
Test level 2
Test level 2 is mandatory for the performance of checks to see if a waste type on a positive list (it assumes that level 1 has already been carried out) can be referred direct to the relevant acceptance criteria. Level 2 must be a comparatively simple test (cf. Annex A). Results should be capable of being related directly to the relevant acceptance criteria. Tests at this level should be carried out regularly. For the same waste type from the same supplier the test is performed, for example, once every year.
Test level 3
The purpose of test level 3 is to ensure that each load of waste received corresponds to the declaration (details from the waste producer). Level 3 must therefore be carried out on every load of waste accepted at landfills. In most cases this identification test can be confined to a visual inspection of the waste before and during unloading.
At the moment, development work is in progress under the auspices of CEN; the work aims to develop some specific tests and is expected to be completed in 1998.
4.5 Registration and acceptance procedures
Registration
Every load of waste transported to or removed from a landfill must be registered.
Pursuant to Statutory Order on Waste No. 299 of April 30, 1997, the registration is made under the ISAG (Information System for Waste and Recycling). This registration includes, for example: the source and waste type, and weight of waste.
As part of the self-control waste must also be registered according to one of the categories listed in sect. 4.2 and the level of testing performed.
Acceptance procedure
The decision as to whether a load of waste can be accepted is made on the basis of the procedure shown in Fig. 4.1 on the next page, and of the acceptance criteria listed in sect. 4.3 as well as of the test levels defined in sect. 4.4.
If the waste can be accepted for landfilling, the reception control will register the landfill unit to which the waste is assigned.
Rejection
If the waste has to be rejected by the reception control, it must be assigned to another treatment facility in accordance with the assignment regulations of the municipality of origin. The authorities in the municipality of origin will be notified of the final treatment facility.
If, upon unloading, waste is not in accordance with the registration, the waste must be removed at the expense of the waste producer. If the waste is to be removed and assigned to other treatment, the authorities in the municipality will e notified.
Figure 4.1
Waste acceptance procedure at landfills.
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