Last summer, people living around the perimeter of Pilsworth South landfill in Bury, Greater Manchester, couldn’t open their windows because of the elevated levels of hydrogen sulphide in the air. Referred to as “sewer gas”, its rotten-egg stench can be particularly unbearable at night. Even driving past with the windows closed on the M66, as I do regularly to drop my child at a local play centre, I have gagged at the overpowering smell.
Including Pilsworth, there are 15 odorous landfills across the UK. Hafod landfill in Wrexham is the latest to hit the headlines. Another in Northern Ireland was so noxious before its decommissioning that it was subject to a supreme court ruling and now an appeal. Meanwhile, several others have breached their licences through overtipping, odour issues or poor management, forcing them to undertake engineering solutions to rectify the problems. These remedial works can make things worse in the short term, with smells created when rubbish is disturbed.
But it’s not just the smell that makes living in the vicinity of a landfill site so unappealing. There are myriad environmental risks, such as the potential for severe water and air pollution, land contamination, harm to local wildlife, and unexplained fires that burn for days (in June this year, fire crews had to tackle blazes at multiple landfill sites). From an economic perspective, odour problems discourage people from visiting an area and negatively affect house prices.
This is not to mention the appalling effects on human health that come from emitted gases such as methane and other toxic carcinogens. A British Medical Journal report found that 80% of the population live within 2km of a functioning or closed landfill site, and there are a host of ailments associated with living so close. These include nausea, respiratory problems, headaches, stress and insomnia, all of which have been reported by residents in and around Pilsworth. And what about the 21,000 historical landfills – our old rubbish buried underground – across England alone? Recent research has shown how they may release cancer-linked PFAS, or “for ever chemicals”, into the environment – and there is probably one not far from where you live.
Does it have to be this way? The obvious route to reducing the use of landfills is to improve recycling. One idea would be for a deposit-return scheme such as the one in Germany. There is a UK plan for such a scheme – but it has been delayed until 2027, four years later than planned, and will only include bottles. Anything recyclable can be intercepted at material recovery facilities, but not all landfills have them. They can cause problems for residents, too: a recycling plant built at a landfill in Kent has provoked ire from people living nearby as a result of the additional air and noise pollution.
One alternative is waste-to-energy plants, which burn rubbish and convert it into power, but they remain controversial for the same reasons as landfills: their emissions and carbon footprint. As for landfills, the way to manage odours and leaks is to build gas wells, cap waste, safely extract toxic leachate and closely monitor the air and water around them for toxins. But, with the number of noxious landfills rising, we know these measures aren’t being taken, or simply aren’t enough when a dump reaches the end of its life. They are often left to continue polluting the air, land and sea long after they have closed.
Ultimately, waste needs to be cut off at its source: there needs to be less rubbish. This would require the government to take serious action to encourage reuse and repair schemes, incentivise businesses to stop producing and using single-use items and invest in diverse and accessible recycling programmes such as the periodic doorstep collection of products including waste textiles and all types of plastic. These recycling streams are for the most part only available to people who can travel to collection points or pay for schemes where a specific type of waste is sent to a recovery facility.
Better management might also save lives. Seven-year-old Zane Gbangbola lived near a lake in a quarry landfill that flooded his house. Firefighters later recorded hydrogen cyanide in the property; his family insist the polluted water led to his death. As climate breakdown makes flooding and the resultant pollution more common, these lakes need flood defences, as well as lining, to prevent the escape of poisonous leachate.
We are beginning to wake up to the landfill toll and its awful human cost. Awful smells, environmental disasters in waiting – and an appalling impact on human health: it is time the next government acts on these ticking timebombs.
Jennifer Sizeland is a freelance writer living in Manchester
