Norlands Lane Landfill Site – Waste Recovery Plan Approved

On behalf of Land Logical Norlands Lane Limited, a Waste Recovery Plan (WRP) was submitted to the Environment Agency (EA) on 13 November 2023 for the importation of 600,000 m3 of inert wastes to allow essential engineering works to be undertaken at Norlands Lane closed landfill site. The main purpose of those engineering works is to capture a greater proportion of the landfill gas produced at the site so that a greater export of electricity to the National Grid can be achieved. The key objective of importing inert and more impermeable waste wholly relates to increasing the now-decreasing volumes of biogas to convert these to electricity for export to the National Grid so that there is a commercially successful operation at the Site.

There are increasing problems in collecting the landfill gas because the Site has suffered from differential settlement which means that the site contours are no longer consistent with the approved restoration plan. This settlement has resulted in a significant reduction in the efficiency of the landfill gas extraction system. Differential settlement has also caused issues with surface water management leading to waterlogging/ ponding on the Site surface. Significantly, landfill gas is escaping through the surface of the previously restored Site and surface water is infiltrating into the wastes causing increased leachate production. Localised vegetation dieback has also been observed indicating that the containment capping is likely to be compromised in parts of the Site. As well as the escape to atmosphere of landfill gas which could otherwise be converted to electricity, this breach of containment could lead to oxygen ingress into the Site which is a fire risk as aerobic conditions that produce heat are likely.

By contrast, when the work is undertaken to introduce the less permeable inert materials to restore the previously envisaged contours, after the replacement pipework has been installed and recontouring taken place, habitat improvement to provide Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) as a marketable product is proposed.

The WRP was submitted to the EA on 13 November 2023 and approved on 15 March 2024.