Waste management company Suez claims that a no-deal Brexit could lead to more waste being sent to landfill due to the disruption caused by leaving the EU without a deal.
Speaking to BBC News, Stuart Hayward-Higham, Technical Development Director at Suez, said: “In the various impacts we’ve looked at, as a result of a no-deal Brexit, we do know that there’ll be some lowering of those environmental performance indicators that we are all trying to strive to achieve.
“One of the outcomes of a no-deal Brexit will mean that we will put more to landfill.”
Concerns abound within the industry that the export of some three million tonnes of residual waste to Northern European energy recovery facilities could be hampered by port disruption, with Jacob Hayler of the Environmental Services Association stating that landfill in the North could be required to pick up the slack, though this would only happen in a more general crisis around transport congestion and fuel issues.
Defra has already secured agreements with all EU27 countries to ensure the ongoing trade of waste, meaning the legal barriers to trade will not be an issue.
In preparation for no-deal disruption, BBC News revealed that councils are taking contigency measures, including stockpiling bin bags and wheelie bins.