The Hill & Moor Landfill Site
Landfilling has been at the cornerstone of municipal waste management for generations.
Now whilst the industry is moving waste management up the ‘Waste Hierarchy’ towards minimisation, reuse, recycling and recovery, there is still going to be a requirement for well engineered and managed landfill for a good few years yet.
At Hill and Moor, near Pershore, Worcestershire, Severn Waste operates a major landfill over a 320 acre site, taking non-hazardous municipal waste from Worcestershire and Herefordshire.
The local Lias Clay geology provides a perfect engineered containment system to prevent any groundwater pollution, with any contaminated water (known as leachate) treated on site or tankered away to sewage works.
It is well known that landfilling organic materials gives rise to harmful landfill gas which is rich in methane. At Hill and Moor, the company utilises this gas through five one-megawatt electricity generating engines, which produce enough power to supply all on-site needs and sufficient for a town the size of nearby Pershore - around 5,000 households.
And once the landfill has reached its design height, the completed landfill cells are capped off with low permeability clay, covered with soils to a pre-agreed specification, and restored to a mixture of grassland/wildflower meadows and woodland.
The landfill engineering, operations, restoration, environmental monitoring and aftercare are regulated by the Environment Agency under Environmental Permitting Regulations. The permit for Hill and Moor is a Pollution Prevention and Control Permit – number PPC ZP3933LD. Information on the regulatory regime can be found by visiting the Environment Agency website.
The landfill and associated activities at Hill and Moor has been a significant feature in the local landscape for many years. To keep the local community abreast of developments, and to provide a forum for information exchange, the Company hosts a Community Liaison Group which meets regularly at the site.