The rules for landfill sites have changed

Each year, UK households churn out about 30 million tonnes of waste.

Most of that ends up in landfill sites, but European regulations mean that has to be reduced drastically.

In fact the domestic rubbish we produce is just a drop in the ocean. Overall the UK dumps 400 million tonnes a year, one quarter of which goes to landfill.

That wasn't so much of a problem when there were sites like old quarries to use, but there aren't enough holes in the ground; space approved for landfill is set to run out in the next few years.

The waste that gets dumped in landfill sites is classified as:

Biodegradable
That's about two-thirds of landfill rubbish, things such as paper, food, garden waste and textiles. This type of waste gives off gas as it rots, about 2% of the UK's total greenhouse gas emissions. However, some of that is recovered to produce energy.

Inert
This is material from construction and demolition that can't be recycled but isn't especially hazardous.

Special waste
This is now called "hazardous waste" and includes used oil, heavily contaminated soils and organic chemicals. It's this type of material that is at the centre of the latest changes which have divided waste managers and associated industries.

There are more than 2,000 landfill sites in the UK. Some handle only one type of waste, others deal with a mix.

But from this month, the number of sites which can take hazardous waste has been reduced from about 250 to just a dozen.

That's likely to have a big impact on businesses.

Transporting

Each year the UK generates about six million tonnes of hazardous waste. Now, with fewer sites, companies will have to pay more to have it disposed of and face higher costs for transporting it to the nearest site.

None of the 12 designated sites is in Scotland or the south-east of England, for example.

Also, new classifications mean some firms may find that they now produce hazardous waste where they didn't before.

Parkinson and Worden, a sign-making firm in Blackburn, was surprised by the changes. Its waste includes electrical wiring and parts for neon lights.

Stockpiling

"We have no way of getting rid of these," says Ian Parkinson.

"Unfortunately the contracted waste disposal people haven't themselves organised a particular idea of how they're going to cope with this kind of waste at the moment so it is a stockpiling issue."

Leigh: Costs have doubled

The nearby Graham & Brown wallpaper factory generates a lot of waste white spirit.

"Overnight the change in the regulations has meant that our disposal costs have more than doubled," says the firm's Leigh Ratcliffe.

The Environment Agency's George Ager says the new rules have been known about for some time.

"We've been doing our best to tell everybody it's coming along," he says. "There shouldn't have been any surprises in all this.

"The important message for business is that we want waste producers to think about how they can eliminate their waste, how they can reduce it, how they can recycle it."

George: Businesses must reduce their waste

Some forecasts suggest there are only enough facilities to deal with about two-thirds of the country's hazardous waste.

That's led to fears that the amount of flytipping could increase.

"We'll do our damnedest to make sure that doesn't happen," says George.

"We know the hotspots so we can put CCTV in place - there's all sorts of tricks of the trade."

Property developers are also unhappy about the new scheme. The cost of cleaning up brownfield sites could rise sharply, meaning more applications will be made to build on greenfield land.

"The big projects may still go ahead, but it is the smaller developments which will suffer," says Myles Kitcher of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

"Sites such as old gas works in former mill towns will not be developed. This amounts to regeneration neglect."

Targets

Some critics say these latest regulations highlight the crisis facing the UK's waste management sector.

European directives set three targets for the UK to meet - in 2010, 2013 and 2020 - concerning reduced amounts of household waste going to landfill.

But a report by the Institution of Civil Engineers says more must be spent now on alternatives such as recycling, incineration and composting. It calculates that more than 2,000 new waste facilities will be needed by 2020, costing up to �30bn.

The UK is way behind other European countries in tackling the problem, according to the Institution's Nigel Mattravers.

Pressure

"The need to move away from just stuffing our waste into the ground means that in six years' time we will need to be where countries like Denmark and the Netherlands were a decade ago," he says.

Businesses might be counting the cost of the latest regulations, but in the long term, the pressure is on each household to help.

There could be changes to what we're allowed to throw out, and if we don't send less rubbish to landfill sites the country faces a potential crisis.