A database of where your county council landfilled your non-recyclable household waste from 2004 to 2009. What is this?

Authorities » Manchester

Tonnage by year

2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
- 287,638 tonnes - tonnage per head inf ² - cost £9,204,416 ¹	- 1,721,588 tonnes - tonnage per head inf ² - cost £55,090,816 ¹	- 851,412 tonnes - tonnage per head inf ² - cost £27,245,184 ¹	- 322,298 tonnes - tonnage per head inf ² - cost £10,313,536 ¹	- 10,250 tonnes - tonnage per head inf ² - cost £328,000 ¹

Landfill sites

In which counties did Manchester council dump their waste?

Greater Manchester - 128,517
Cheshire - 137,043
Lancashire - 159,164
Yorkshire - 594,593
North Lincolnshire - 817,916
Unknown or exempt - 1,355,953

Locations of the landfill sites.

Returns (36 records)

Non-hazardous returns by Manchester council.

Landfilled 125,000 tonnes in to (null) in 2004
Landfilled 162,638 tonnes in to (null) in 2004
Landfilled 590,329 tonnes in to (null) in 2005
Landfilled 477,986 tonnes in to (null) in 2005
Landfilled 66,699 tonnes in to HU8 8DA (Yorkshire) in 2005
Landfilled 105,324 tonnes in to DN15 0BD (North Lincolnshire) in 2005
Landfilled 30,181 tonnes in to PR6 8BT (Lancashire) in 2005
Landfilled 23,119 tonnes in to WA4 6YZ (Cheshire) in 2005
Landfilled 64,699 tonnes in to HU8 8DA (Yorkshire) in 2005
Landfilled 109,238 tonnes in to DN15 0BD (North Lincolnshire) in 2005
Landfilled 34,620 tonnes in to PR6 8BT (Lancashire) in 2005
Landfilled 22,562 tonnes in to WA4 6YZ (Cheshire) in 2005
Landfilled 54,503 tonnes in to HU8 8DA (Yorkshire) in 2005
Landfilled 91,703 tonnes in to DN15 0BD (North Lincolnshire) in 2005
Landfilled 30,375 tonnes in to PR6 8BT (Lancashire) in 2005
Landfilled 20,250 tonnes in to WA4 6YZ (Cheshire) in 2005
Landfilled 61,269 tonnes in to HU8 8DA (Yorkshire) in 2006
Landfilled 100,063 tonnes in to DN15 0BD (North Lincolnshire) in 2006
Landfilled 31,010 tonnes in to PR6 8BT (Lancashire) in 2006
Landfilled 21,482 tonnes in to WA4 6YZ (Cheshire) in 2006
Landfilled 107,300 tonnes in to HU8 8DA (Yorkshire) in 2006
Landfilled 104,745 tonnes in to DN15 0BD (North Lincolnshire) in 2006
Landfilled 30,020 tonnes in to WA4 6YZ (Cheshire) in 2006
Landfilled 61,084 tonnes in to HU8 8DA (Yorkshire) in 2006
Landfilled 113,384 tonnes in to DN15 0BD (North Lincolnshire) in 2006
Landfilled 19,610 tonnes in to WA4 6YZ (Cheshire) in 2006
Landfilled 89,266 tonnes in to HU8 8DA (Yorkshire) in 2006
Landfilled 105,726 tonnes in to DN15 0BD (North Lincolnshire) in 2006
Landfilled 6,453 tonnes in to PR6 8BT (Lancashire) in 2006
Landfilled 89,773 tonnes in to HU8 8DA (Yorkshire) in 2007
Landfilled 87,733 tonnes in to DN15 0BD (North Lincolnshire) in 2007
Landfilled 26,525 tonnes in to PR6 8BT (Lancashire) in 2007
Landfilled 37,678 tonnes in to WA3 6BY (Greater Manchester) in 2007
Landfilled 54,533 tonnes in to WA3 6BY (Greater Manchester) in 2007
Landfilled 26,056 tonnes in to WA3 6BY (Greater Manchester) in 2007
Landfilled 10,250 tonnes in to WA3 6BY (Greater Manchester) in 2008

Why?

On my trip to work each day I can see a huge landfill site. A mound of rotting household waste with gulls flapping around for morsels of food and, presumably, dead AAA batteries. Like most people I can usually fill a five foot high black bin every couple of weeks with non-recyclable stuff from my house, which Mole Valley Council whisk off at 6am every other Friday morning, so I wondered if any of the things I put in my bin found their way to the landfill.

Thanks

This is possible thanks to wastedataflow.org, a free site detailing all the waste returns filed by every council in England. That is to say, every deposit, both tonnage and location, of everything I've stuck in to my bin. Also thanks to What Do They Know? for help with my Freedom of Information request. I also used Geonames and Google Maps during translation of the wastedataflow postcodes to English counties.

Notes and Terminology

Disclaimer

Data has been exported by hand from a slightly opaque web GUI and transformed from a unwieldily CSV to a neat and tidy database so there may have been errors in translation. No independent verification of how i've presented the data has been sought.

Most authorities report their landfill statistics from April in accordance with the start of the financial year, so my data is not necessarily comparable with other publicly quoted statistics.

Many local authorities do not add postcodes to their landfill statisitics, which makes it hard to draw on a map. Eg, This is why Devon has 744,512 tonnes of non-geolocataed waste - I don't have time to correct it.

Non-hazardous

Cost of Landfill

The Landfill Tax, introduced in 1996, is encouraging waste producers to divert material from landfill and is a factor in making recycling more affordable, as there is often a cost to initiate recycling. In April 2007 the tax rate for active waste increased by £3 to £24 per tonne. The rate for inactive waste is £2 per tonne. In April 2008 the active waste tax will rise by £8 to £32 per tonne. The government has said that the Landfill Tax will increase by £8 per tonne each year from April 2008 until at least 2010/11. The rate for inactive waste will increase to £2.50 per tonne in April 2008. [source: letsrecycle.com].

Population

The landfill tonnage divided by the current approximate population size of the district. Populations taken from Wikipedia's counties and London sub-region pages.

Where Does My Waste Go?