This presentation was held by Germán Coca (Environmental Department of the Regional Government of Andalucía, Spain) at the thematic event focused on ‘Environmental aspects of landfill management projects’ under the session ‘After Care: after‐closure management & possibilities of use for old landfills’. The event took place in Cordoba (Spain) on February 22, 2018.
In the first part of the presentation Germán Coca elaborated on the legal aspects of landfills in Andalusia. In Spain the competences and legislation are dived among the state, the autonomies and the municipalities. Local entities that are in charge of collection, transport and treatment of the waste are in charge of the landfills. In most cases direct dumping of waste in the landfill is not permitted, permits for landfills are linked to and environmental plan with authorisation for a treatment plant linked to the associated landfill. Sealing of the landfill is obliged since the 1999 decree; the cost is implemented by the region to support the municipalities.
In the second part of the presentation Germán Coca focused more on the economic aspects related to post closure of the landfill. Some figures are described here:
• Sealing: 30-150 euro per m2 for a municipal waste landfill, while 10-40 euro per m2 for an inert waste landfill;
• Post closure maintenance: 30 000 euro per year;
• Post closure surveillance and control: 7 000-13 000 euro per year;
• Meteorological control: 4 500 euro per year;
• Annual settlements report: 3 000 -5 000 euro per year
This allows us to conclude that a landfill is expensive with also an environmental cost of giving up a piece of land. You can find the entire presentation here.
