Problems with derelict landfills
Europe counts, roughly estimated, 150000 landfills. Many of them are closed, unattended and a threat to the environment or human health. Reuse of the landfills is a good option, but difficult to realize in practice. The reasons, as discussed in the Sufalnet meetings, are the following.
Too many or missing Legal Frameworks
The legal frameworks in the several regions or countries have some implicit barriers for the reuse of landfills. In some countries this is overregulation: some rules never made for this goal, prohibit common sense solutions that are needed to reuse the landfills. An example are the rules for groundwater protection that forbid certain landuse, while the landfill without appropriate aftercare is a greater threat to the environment. In other countries there is a lack of regulation. The result is that no body or organization is responsible for the landfill and the authorities cannot organize the stakeholders. Stakeholders try to keep away form the problem of the landfills, because they are afraid of the liabilities involved.
Lack of awareness and support from the regional or local authorities
Many countries state that for a successfull reuse program, the keyrole should be played by the local or regional authorities. If the are not active it is very hard for a private company or local civilians to start the process. Local and regional authorities can be inactive because they are legally bound, because there is no political incentive or because they simply do not know how to start. It is the aim of Sufalnet to put the issue on the political agenda when the first two reasons apply and to support the authorities when the third reason appears to be the case. Therefore Sufalnet has the aim to let the Sufalnet project develop into a permanent Sufalnet network.
Lack of applicable strategies, techniques and methods for specific problems
Sufalnet produced a Model Strategy as a product of the partners of the project. Though Sufalnet is proud of what it accomplished, the partners are aware of the fact that the model strategy is not yet an answer to all problems of 150.000 landfills in Europe. To evolve into an full grown strategy on a more generic level several steps must be taken. First it must be used in other situations and maintain itself in these new circumstances. Second, it must be grow, new experiences will make it possible to specify some details that are still addressed on a more generic level. Third, it must be varied under different circumstances. You can think of more urban and industrial areas or more rural areas, but you can also think of variation due to the local culture or economic circumstances. Fourth, it must be differentiated, because people develop better options, smarter solutions or better techniques. And last but not least, it must be adepted as the default option for closed landfills.