Hazardous waste dumped 'days before landfill shut'

An investigation by the Environment Agency has revealed that waste, including asbestos, was dumped at a landfill site in the period shortly before it was closed.

Bosses revealed this week that they had found "a single discrete pile of waste" in the north west corner of the Walleys Quarry site in Silverdale, Staffordshire.

It was deposited outside the landfill cells in November 2024, they said, at a time after its operators had been ordered to stop accepting waste material in March that year.

The site was closed on 28 November 2024 and the owner of the landfill entered liquidation on 28 February 2025.

Since then, a contractor working for the Environment Agency has been managing the former landfill and capping off the site.

The Environment Agency said the material they had discovered would now have to be removed and treated as hazardous, to be sent to an "appropriately authorised facility" for processing.

"The results of analysis of the samples indicated that the waste is contaminated with elevated levels of metals, sulphide and sulphates, polyaromatic hydrocarbons and a single occurrence of asbestos," according to an update on their website.

They said it was an isolated pile, and that bosses would be considering options for its treatment off-site and disposal in the coming months.

"Our contractors will continue to take steps to minimise the impact of the waste outside the site boundary," they said.

"We will also provide an update to the community when we can say more about the progress that we have been able to make."

Follow BBC Stoke & Staffordshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.