A wide variety of landfills, but the same systematic approach
Roughly estimated, Europe counts over 150.000 landfills. These landfills as a group are a footprint of the way people in Europe lived in the last centuries. In the very old days waste was often recycled, just because people could use it again. Ancient landfills are now archeological sites. Waste problems on a regional and national scale started in the era of industrialization and urbanization and are a reflection of the industrial history of the specific region. In the 70'ies of the last century environmental awareness became a public issue in many countries. People protested against leaking landfills in their neighbourhood and national environmental laws were made. In the '90'ies EU directives, modeled on the experiences of the front-runners, set the rule for the new countries that joined the EU in the beginning of this century. In the summaries of case studies on this website you can read how this story line can be recognized in the stories of the countries from the Sufalnet network.
What do regions know about these landfills?
Countries in Europe with partners in Sufalnet
Many partners of Sufalnet reported on the landfills in their own region. From the picture that the network made from these reports the following can be concluded. First, there is a big difference between the densely populated, often industrialized regions and the more rural area's. In the urban area's with a strong economy, landfills are investigated, environmentally secured and redevelopment of the landfill as a public amenity, office park or even housing area is a serious option. The stories of Cork, Emden, Maastricht and Gulbergen give good examples of this situation. In the more rural area's, after care is still important, but redevelopment not. In these area's there is no need for land and landfills are secured and landscaped but nothing more. Most countries are confronted with both situations. In a country like the Netherlands there is much pressure on reuse of land, but Lithuania has area's with only 10 people on a square kilometer where there is no pressure at all.
Second, the condition of the landfills and the amount of landfills is often a reflection of the economic situation in a region for the last decades. Generally speaking, the rich regions have secured their closed landfills and regulated the waste management in the region. They have a few large landfills still open and a high percentage of waste recycling, waste reduction in industries and high tech combustion plants. The focus of these regions is on land reuse. In the economically weaker regions, the situation is completely different. The reports of Wielkopolska and Lithuania show what is happening there. Waste management just started, many environmental problems with the end of the life cycle of industries, brown fields and hazardous waste landfills and trying to get funding for investigations, risk assessment and technical solutions for aftercare. The focus of these countries is mainly on the environmental management of the landfills.
The legal frameworks and conceptual models
Conceptual model of a landfill in its environment
Many regions report that they made their own regional landfill policy or program under the framework of national or European laws. The partners of Sufalnet that ask for help or guidance are not asking for more laws, but ask for knowledge (best practices) and financial support. Sufalnet noticed that it could build on shared concepts, developed in earlier European projects like Clarinet and Caracas. For instance, the concept of Risk Based Land Management is implemented in many regional programs and could therefore easily be used as a basic part of the model strategy on Examination of landfills. With the political discussions on the Soil Framework Directive still going on, European knowledge exchange seems to be at least as effective in day to day work of the regions as the legal frameworks.
Learning communities
The motive of many partners to join the Sufalnet network is the access to practical knowledge and best practices of other regions. Most explicit about this is the contribution of the town Oldham in the UK. Confronted with many complex questions in their own region, the Council decided to actively search for European knowledge networks. The main objectives of the Council overlapped with the Sufalnet objectives and the Council used the project to tackle their own landfill problems. In a learning community like Sufalnet, front runners can have serious feed back on their own best practices and the others could accelerate their own learning process by using best practices of others.
Project or process
The papers of the case studies show that no country can close their files on the landfill issue on a short term. Aftercare on closed landfills is for ever and techniques to make this process more efficient and effective still develop. Sustainable landfill management is special because it combines knowledge fields of aftercare (Environment), Redevelopment (Landuse, Financies) and People (stakeholder management). Each field has its own skills, experts and traditions. Sustainable Landfill Management therefore asks for a permanent learning community.