DoE's shift on co-disposal

A draft Waste Management Paper (WMP) on co-disposal issued by the Department of the Environment (DoE) has provided the first confirmation of a major shift in official landfill philosophy.¹ The DoE is now advocating high rates of liquid circulation to accelerate flushing out of pollutants and stabilisation of the waste mass, even though it concedes that all the technology needed to do this successfully is not yet available or proven. New curbs on inputs of some solid and liquid industrial wastes are proposed, and may give a boost to contaminated soil clean-up techniques in place of dumping in co-disposal sites.