The amount of deposited waste has increased, although the amount of deposited domestic waste has significantly fallen
In the last three years, as waste generation has increased, so has the amount of deposited waste – 7.4 million tonnes of waste were deposited in 2022. The deposition of oil shale ash has the biggest impact on this, as it has not yet found its use as a raw material. In the years 2018–2022, the largest proportion (78%) of the waste deposited in landfills was waste generated in thermal processes, including oil shale hearth and fly ash and solid gas purification waste containing hazardous substances or alkaline. Twelve per cent of the deposited waste was oil shale semi-coke and 7% was mining waste of non-ore mineral resources, sand and clay waste. The positive news is that the amount of household waste deposited in landfills has fallen nearly threefold, which makes the proportion of landfilled waste less than 1%.
A landfill is a waste management facility for the deposit of waste onto or into land, including a waste management facility where a waste generator deposits waste at its place of generation (internal waste disposal site) and a waste management facility that is permanently used for storage of waste for longer than one year.
A landfill is not:
1) facilities where waste is unloaded in order to prepare it for further transport to a treatment, recovery or disposal site located elsewhere;
2) facilities where waste is stored prior to treatment or recovery if all the waste stored at the facility is treated or recovered within three years after being stored;
3) facilities where waste is stored prior to disposal if all the waste stored at the facility is disposed of within one year after being stored.
Depending on the properties of the deposited waste, landfills are divided into: landfills for non-hazardous waste (where mixed household waste and other general waste is deposited); landfills for hazardous waste (where hazardous waste is deposited); and landfills for inert waste (where inert waste is deposited, i.e. waste in which no significant physical, chemical or biological changes occur).
As of 2023, there were 8 regular waste landfills and 5 hazardous waste landfills in use.