Close your landfill site

The standards you must meet to close your landfill site and move it into aftercare.

The standards you must meet to close your landfill site and move it into aftercare.

When you stop accepting waste at your landfill site, you can start to close it. This is complete when your local Environment Agency officer agrees your site is definitely closed in writing. This confirms closure for either:

  • the whole site
  • part of a site (partial closure)

Temporary cessation (mothballing) is when you stop accepting waste for more than 12 months. Where your local Environment Agency officer agrees it, they will reduce your annual subsistence charge for a maximum of 2 years. See the environmental permitting charging scheme, Part 3, paragraph 15(b).

The Environment Agency will not agree temporary cessation where you start the closure process. Starting the closure process means you have no plans to re-start disposal operations.

You do not need to apply to change (vary) your permit for temporary cessation. See the section of this guide on ‘change (vary) your permit: definite closure’.

All landfill sites that stopped waste disposal before July 2001 are closed. They are in aftercare.

Landfill sites not subject to the Landfill Directive

If you stopped operating your landfill before July 2001 you do not need to comply with the Landfill Directive. You do not need a closure report.

You must comply with the Waste Framework Directive, article 13. You must:

A hydrogeological risk assessment includes any assessment you did under Regulation 15 of the Waste Management Licensing Regulations 1994.

Landfill sites subject to the Landfill Directive

Article 13(a) of the Directive says a landfill or part of it starts the closure process when either:

  • you are compliant with the conditions in your permit
  • you ask the Environment Agency and they approve it (early closure)
  • the Environment Agency decides your site must close and they issue a closure notice (Environmental Permitting Regulations 2016, schedule 10, paragraph 10)

If you continued waste disposal after July 2001, to definitely close your landfill you must:

  • comply with the relevant parts of the Landfill Directive, for example article 13 and annex I and III
  • be compliant with your permit
  • send a closure report to your local Environment Agency officer for their approval

Permit compliance

Your local Environment Agency officer will only review your closure report if you are compliant with your permit.

Before you prepare your closure report, you must review and update your operating techniques or management plans. This ensures:

  • you are complaint with the operating techniques condition of your permit
  • they are up to date before your site enters aftercare

Read Develop and maintain management plans.

Your local Environment Agency officer must agree changes to the operating techniques listed in your permit (normally table S1.2).

Start to plan site closure and discuss it with your local Environment Agency officer at least 2 years before you send them your closure report. This gives you time to:

  • review and update your operating techniques or management plans
  • prepare your closure report
  • apply to vary your permit to make the site compliant, where necessary

If you are not compliant and you want to change (vary) your permit, for example to change compliance limits, you must do this before you send your closure report to your local Environment Agency officer. You must pay for this application. Check table 1.17 in the environmental permitting charging scheme.

Early closure

If you want to close your landfill before it has reached the settlement levels in your permit (early closure), you must get written agreement from your local Environment Agency officer. You may also need to agree this with the local planning authority. Early closure includes where you decide to leave areas of your site unfilled.

For your local Environment Agency officer to decide, you must send them the profile and stability of any waste slopes (including a stability risk assessment, where necessary).

Where early closure will leave areas of the site unfilled, you must also send them your proposed changes to:

  • groundwater and surface water management
  • the landfill gas and leachate collection system
  • the capping design, including its stability
  • operating techniques, management plans or closure and aftercare plan

Your local Environment Agency officer must agree you can close early before you send them your closure report.

Closure report

Your closure report must include the following information. It may be separate or refer to your operating techniques or management plans. You must send your closure report to your local Environment Agency officer. They will either agree it in writing or tell you what else you need to do. You can use this closure report template.

Landfill site closure report template (ODT)

Plans and drawings

You must tell the Environment Agency which parts of your landfill you are closing on a site plan. If you are closing the whole site, they will accept the site plan in your permit. Your site plan must be a minimum scale of 1:2500.

Where your permit requires you to actively manage leachate or landfill gas, you must include a plan of the locations of the on-site:

  • extraction wells or boreholes
  • pipework
  • plant and equipment

Where your permit requires you to monitor leachate, landfill gas, groundwater or surface water, you must include a plan of the locations of the monitoring points or boreholes.

Where you are managing surface water, for example run-off from a cap, you must include a plan of the location of all drains and ditches. You must include the location of any discharge point to controlled water including soakaways.

You must include the location of the plant or equipment you will use where you are:

  • storing or treating leachate on site
  • burning landfill gas in an engine or flare
  • applying bio-oxidation
  • managing groundwater or surface water

Waste stability

Your closure report must confirm the stability of the waste. For landfills for inert waste, read how to do a stability risk assessment. You must show that waste will not leave the boundary of your site.

Your closure report must include how you will monitor waste settlement. This must include any differential settlement between cells or phases where you deposited different waste types, for example stable non-reactive hazardous waste, asbestos or gypsum-based materials.

Where you intend to partially close your site, you must not allow waste to leave the filled area. That includes where you plan to close your site early and leave areas of the site unfilled (see the section of this guide on ‘early closure’).

You must consider the potential impact from climate change on the stability of the waste, for example from extreme weather or erosion by rivers or the sea. You must do this for the whole aftercare period.

Maintenance and monitoring procedures

Where required by your permit, your closure report must include (where relevant) your procedures for:

  • preventing or minimising emissions of leachate and landfill gas
  • managing and monitoring leachate levels and quality
  • monitoring the quantity of leachate removed from site or recirculated
  • managing and monitoring landfill gas concentrations in the waste and off site
  • managing and monitoring groundwater level and quality around your site
  • managing and monitoring surface water quality at a discharge point
  • monitoring surface water quality up and down gradient of your site
  • managing and monitoring other emissions, for example, noise, dust and odour
  • monitoring the integrity of the capped surface, including walkover surveys for landfill gas emissions
  • ensuring all infrastructure including monitoring and extraction wells and boreholes remain fit for purpose throughout aftercare

Read monitor and report your performance.

You must consider all the waste previously deposited, including under previous legislation. For example, non-hazardous wastes in a dilute and attenuate cell.

Infrastructure

Where required by your permit, your closure report must detail the infrastructure you will use to:

Hydrogeological risk assessment reviews

Where required by your permit, you must include a copy of, or refer to, your most recent hydrogeological risk assessment review. Where you have not completed a review in the past 6 years, you must include a hydrogeological risk assessment review with your closure report. Read the guidance, review your hydrogeological risk assessment.

Notifying events

Your permit will tell you if and when you must tell the Environment Agency about an event that may cause pollution. The Landfill Directive, article 13(c) calls these significant environmental effects. If your permit does not require you to notify the Environment Agency, you must tell them how and when you will do this in your closure report.

Capping and restoration

Where your permit requires you to install a final cap, the Environment Agency will not approve your closure report until you have:

  • installed it across the whole site
  • complied with the engineering condition

Where you are still restoring your site, your closure report must include your plans for completing that work.

You can send the Environment Agency your closure report before you restore your landfill site.

Habitats

Where your site is within a specified distance of a European site for nature conservation, or other designated habitat site, you must show that your site will not affect it during aftercare. You can do this by completing a habitats risk assessment. This page includes a link to Natural England’s maps (Magic map). Your closure report must describe any mitigation measures.

Financial provision

The Environment Agency will not agree your closure report if you have not fully funded your financial provision.

Where the Environment Agency agree you can close your site early, your financial provision must be funded to the relevant amount at the date you stop accepting waste for disposal. This is in the expenditure plan in the agreement you made with the Environment Agency.

Once your landfill is in aftercare, the amount of financial provision will reduce. This is described in the agreement you made with the Environment Agency.

Closure report: agreement

Your local Environment Agency officer will review your closure report and do a final site inspection. This is required by the Landfill Directive, article 13(b).

Once they confirm it in writing, your landfill is definitely closed.

Change (vary) your permit: definite closure

Where your local Environment Agency officer agrees your site is definitely closed, the Environment Agency will change (vary) your permit. This will:

  • stop you accepting waste for disposal
  • incorporate the agreed closure report into your permit

  • change any monitoring and reporting frequencies to those in the agreed closure report

  • include a condition for accepting inert waste for filling-in work above the cap
  • change the site category in the environmental permitting charging scheme

They will charge you for this variation. Check table 1.17 in environmental permitting charging scheme.

You must apply to vary your permit to:

  • change any other permit conditions or compliance limits
  • consolidate your permit
  • remove unnecessary operational conditions

Where you apply for these changes, the Environment Agency will include the definite closure changes listed above if they approve your application and agree your site is definitely closed.

Partial closure

You can definitely close part of your landfill at any time where there is physical separation between the:

  • area you want to close
  • remaining operational area(s)
  • previously closed area(s)

Physical separation means there is a low risk of landfill gas or leachate moving between the 2 areas of the site. This will normally be a barrier, for example a soil bund or void. Your closure report must tell the Environment Agency how you have physically separated the different areas of your site.

You must send your local Environment Agency officer a closure report with a plan or drawing of the area you want to close.

If they agree part of your site is definitely closed, the Environment Agency will change (vary) your permit to:

  • stop you accepting waste for disposal in the closed area
  • incorporate the agreed closure report into your permit
  • change any monitoring and reporting frequencies to those in the agreed closure report
  • include a condition for accepting inert waste for filling-in work above the cap in the closed area
  • change the site plan appended to your permit

The Environment Agency will charge you for this variation. Your varied permit will include controls for the definitely closed and operational areas.

Your annual subsistence charge will be the sum of two categories (operational and closed) in table 2.17 of the environmental permitting charging scheme.

Partial closure: landfill sites for inert waste

The Environment Agency accepts that you may want to release parts of your landfill for development or other uses. You can partially close or partially surrender your permit as you complete each phase of your site. To partially surrender your permit, the phase you want to surrender must be physically separate from the operational phase.

Where you partially close your site, you will pay 2 subsistence charges (operational and closed) until the Environment Agency accepts the surrender of all or part of your permit.

Partial closure: landfill sites for non-hazardous waste

If your permit is for non-hazardous waste, you can apply to change (vary) your permit to dispose of inert waste only in new cells or phases.

You will pay 2 subsistence charges for the closed non-hazardous waste area and the operational inert waste area. This will normally be less than the charge for an operational landfill for non-hazardous waste.

Definite closure and permit surrender

You must send your local Environment Agency officer a closure report where your permit requires it. Otherwise, you can apply to surrender your permit at any time.

To apply to surrender your permit, read landfill and deposit for recovery: aftercare and permit surrender. Your surrender application must include evidence that your site has met the surrender criteria.

If the Environment Agency does not accept your surrender application and has not agreed your site is definitely closed, they will continue to regulate your site as operational. They will charge subsistence using the relevant category in table 2.17 of the environmental permitting charging scheme.

You can send your local Environment Agency officer a closure report at any time. See the section of this guide on ‘landfill sites subject to the Landfill Directive’.