ESTONIAN ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW 2009

9.9.2. Number of landfills in use
and classification
The requirements for the establishment, use, closure
and aftercare of landfills are set forth in the Waste Act,
the European Council Landfill Directive 1999/31/EU and
the Minister of the Environment regulation no. 38 of 29
April 2004, “Requirements for the establishment, use,
closure of landfills”.
By 16 July 2009, all landfills that do not conform to the
requirements of the Estonian landfill regulation F must be
closed and they must be conditioned by 16 July 2013.
As the terms and conditions set forth in the landfill
regulation are fairly strict, 2001 saw the beginning of
massive closures. In 2001 there were still 157 landfills in
operation (figure 9.15), in 2002 there were only 59 left.
In 2007, there were 18 landfills for non-hazardous waste,
10 for hazardous waste and 2 inert waste landfills. All
of the landfills closed in 2001–2007 have not yet been
conditioned.
There will be 6 landfills for non-hazardous waste left
operational after 16 July 2009. These are regional landfills
that are capable of serving more than one county.
Non-hazardous waste landfills are used to deposit mixed
municipal waste and other non-hazardous waste.
Hazardous waste landfills are used to deposit hazardous
waste, mainly oil shale waste – 5 landfills are
for deposition of oil shale ash, 2 are for waste generated
from production of shale oil and 3 are for depositing
other hazardous waste. As these predominantly belong
to companies, bringing these into conformity with the
landfill regulation is the duty of the companies.
Since 2003, the deposition of pitch waste from oil shale
in semi-coke deposits has been terminated. The semicoke
landfills in Kohtla-Järve and Kiviõli will be closed
and restructured by 2013 and new landfills conforming
to environmental requirements will be established on
the rest of the territory of these landfills.
Inert waste landfills are for waste produced in the
mining of oil shale. In essence these are storage areas
for mining waste, and these will later not be classified
as landfills.
Closure of a landfill does not mean that waste handling
is no longer allowed on such a territory. Sorting and intermediate
deposition of construction and demolition waste
and composing of biodegradable waste may continue on
such areas on the basis of waste permits. These types of
waste may be used upon closure of landfills as well, if
the approved closure project so permits. Thus there is
no need to redirect all of the waste that has thus far been
deposited in the landfills to be closed.
200
number of landfills in use from 2000–2007
150
100
P
50
0
170
157
59
50
46
39
36
30
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Figure 9.15. Number of landfills in use from 2000–2007. Data: EEIC.
158
F
The landfill regulation – i.e., Minister of the Environment regulation no. 34 of 26 June 2001 “Requirements for the establishment, use and closure of landfills” (RTL 2001, 87, 1219;
2002, 146, 2127) transposes the primary requirements on landfills in European Council directive 1999/31/EU. The landfill regulation entered into force on 1 September 2001.