The stench from my local dump points to a huge problem that Britain is not solving | Jennifer Sizeland

LLast summer, people living around the Pilsworth South landfill in Bury, Greater Manchester were unable to open their windows due to elevated levels of hydrogen sulphide in the air. Also called “sewage gas,” the stench of rotten eggs can be especially unbearable at night. Even driving along the M66 with the windows closed, as I regularly do to drop my child off at a local play centre, the overwhelming smell makes me gag.

Including Pilsworth, there are fifteen smelly landfills in Britain. The Hafod landfill in Wrexham is the latest made headlines. Another in Northern Ireland was so damaging before its decommissioning that it was subject to a Supreme Court ruling now on appeal. Meanwhile, several others have had their licenses violated due to over-tipping, odor issues or poor management, forcing them to come up with technical solutions to fix the problems. These repairs can worsen the situation in the short term because odors are created when the waste is disturbed.

But it’s not just the smell that makes living near a landfill so unappealing. There are numerous environmental risks, such as the potential for serious water and air pollution, land contamination, damage to local wildlife and unexplained fires that burn for days (in June this year, firefighters had to tackling fires at several landfills). From an economic perspective, odor problems discourage people from visiting an area and negatively impact housing prices.

Not to mention the dire human health consequences that result from emissions of gases such as methane and other toxic carcinogens. A report from the British Medical Journal found that 80% of the population lives within a mile of a functioning or closed landfill, and a host of ailments come with living so close. These include nauseabreathing problems, headachestress and insomnia, all of which have been there reported by residents in and around Pilsworth. And what about the 21,000 historic landfills – our old waste buried underground – in England alone? Recent research has shown how they can release cancer-related PFAS, or “forever chemicals,” into the environment — and there’s probably one not far from where you live.

Does it have to be this way? The obvious route to reducing landfill use is to improve recycling. One idea would be for a deposit system like this one in Germany. There is a British plan for such a plan, but that’s about it postponed until 2027four years later than planned, and contains only bottles. Everything that is recyclable can are intercepted at material recovery facilities, but not at all landfills. They can also cause problems for residents: a recycling plant built in a landfill in Kent has caused anger among people living nearby due to the additional air and noise pollution.

One alternative is waste-to-energy plants, which burn waste and convert it into energy, but they remain controversial for the same reasons as landfills: their emissions and carbon footprint. When it comes to landfills, the way to control odors and leaks is to build gas wells, seal waste, safely extract toxic leachate, and closely monitor the air and water around them for toxins. But with the number of harmful landfills are increasingwe know that these measures are not taken, or are simply not sufficient, when a landfill reaches the end of its life. They often continue to pollute the air, land and sea long after they close.

Ultimately, waste must be tackled at the source: there must be less waste. This would require the government to take serious action to encourage reuse and repair programs, incentivize companies to stop producing and using single-use items and invest in diverse and accessible recycling programs, such as periodic collection home delivery of products, including waste textiles and all types of waste. plastic. For the most part, these recycling streams are only available to people who can travel to collection points or pay for schemes that send a specific type of waste to a recovery facility.

Better management can also save lives. Seven-year-old Zane Gbangbola lived near a lake in a quarry that flooded his house. Firefighters later found hydrogen cyanide in the building; his family insists the contaminated water led to his death. If the degradation of the climate As flooding and the resulting pollution become more common, these lakes require both flood defenses and revetments to prevent the escape of toxic leachate.

We are beginning to realize the toll on landfills and their terrible human costs. Terrible odors, environmental disasters on the horizon – and a terrible impact on human health: it’s time for the next government to take action on these ticking time bombs.