“Is now the time for Newcastle-under-Lyme to go zero waste?”
Situated in the North Staffordshire village of Silverdale sits Walley’s Quarry - or as locals call it, ‘The Tip’. Converted from a clay extraction quarry to a landfill in 2007, Walley’s Quarry was initially licenced to take 250,000 tonnes annually of non-hazardous waste. Red Industries, the landfill operator, requested a permit variation to increase annual waste to 400,000 tonnes in December 2018. Public consultations ran from 24 May 2019 to 16 September 2020, and after Red Industries demonstrated their proposed permit change met all legal requirements, the Environment Agency was legally obliged to issue the permit variation on the 30 October 2020.
An odour, which people describe as ‘rotten eggs’, is blighting the lives of Newcastle-under-Lyme’s residents. The ‘stink’, as it is nicknamed by residents, is so bad that people have reported they are retching, and those living nearby are unable to open their windows. In a Yahoo News article dated 2 March 2020, a local resident Hilary Beech said “It’s embarrassing when you have friends’ round. In the summer you’ll be having a barbecue and it’s difficult to be honest with them when they ask what the smell is… Apparently it [the waste pile] is going to become a tower so we will soon be able to see it as well as smell it. We have friends who have moved because of the smell.
Residents from the near-by Poolfields area, some being 400 meters from the east boundary, report that the stink intensified in the winter of 2019. Before this period, the stink was just an “occasional whiff”, they never associated with Walley’s Quarry – “we thought it was a gas leak or someone with a dodgy fire.” February and March 2020 the same residents complained the stink “was particularly awful”. On the announcement of lockdown, the smell disappeared; “we had a wonderful summer spent in our garden listening to the birds, breathing clean fresh air.”
August 2020 and the residents say, “the smell came back with a vengeance”- increasing in strength and frequency. “At times there is no escaping it; it comes through the vents, up through the plug holes – we cannot open windows or doors to escape, and it is stuck on our clothes.”
One resident, again close to the boundary has horrendous health problems. They tell of their asthma being “exacerbated” and they are under a consultant for a heart problem that started in September. Working from home their mental health is a “complete mess” and they are unable to “concentrate on work”. They say, “When it is bad, I can’t eat for being sick; I was being sick 24/7 over Christmas”. Headaches, itchy eyes, burning noses, nose bleeds, not being able to sleep properly are other health problems residents report. “We’re quite simply – fed up. This is no quality of life!”.
BBC Radio Stoke reporter, Sophie Calvert visited St Lukes CE Primary School to report on the impact on students. Pupils reported the stink being “disgusting” with some “smelling it every day”. Sam Ray, the schools headteacher in the interview tells that the stink in “the last couple of months [has] got much worse”. She also reports of the stink being “putrid” and “you can almost taste it”. When children are being affected at their place of education there is a huge emotional impact.
On the Stop the Stink Facebook page, people were posting that the stink woke them up at early hours of the morning. Some people commented of waking up nauseous to the smell through the night. On the 2012 ‘Review of Mining Permission’ Lafarge Aggregates Limited, the original proprietors before Red Industries took over in 2016, were permitted to operate between the hours of 0700 to 1900 Monday to Friday, and 0700 to 1300 on Saturdays. The permit states “no operations other than essential maintenance or emergency operation are carried out outside to of these times.” On the 2018 permit variation there is no change to working hours.
24 February 2021, local campaigner Nathan Wint, after reading reports on social media of mechanical sounds coming from the tip went to investigate at 0130. He said, “I went and stood there for 15 minutes there was 2 blokes, and that was it… unless [they are] working in pitch black I couldn’t see [any] activity.”
Posted on a recently formed Facebook group ‘The Landfill Stinks Cap It Off’, there were pictures circulating of water samples next to a nitrate test indicator card. In the comments that followed, people were reporting their water tasted “funny”. In his talk with North Staffs Green Party on 17 February 2021, Dr Salt explained that UK mains water supply is delivered to our houses in pressurised pipes. If the pipes were cracked, water at pressure spills out. He said it is near impossible for anything to enter the UK water mains supply.
Photographs on social media groups have also been circulating purporting to show Red Industries were depositing liquid waste. In an email to Dr Salt, Red Industries adamantly confirm “that no liquid wastes have been deposited at the facility.” They go further and explain “the waste acceptance criteria for landfills is set within the scope of the European wide landfill directive and adapted into domestic law and prohibits the landfill of certain materials, including liquid wastes”. In the same email they give a detailed explanation of these photographs:
Tankers entering/leaving the facility – in addition to treatment of our leachate wastes through the leachate treatment plant we send such wastes off site for disposal at other permitted facilities. Small tankers entering/leaving the facility – occasionally we have septic tank services supplied to the facility to empty the welfare facility bathrooms.
IBC containers and 205ltr drums – permitted wastes come in all shapes and sizes, which include containerised waste. It is completely foreseeable that such wastes are produced, for example a waste we have disposed of in the past was glue waste that had been stored by a warehouse facility for too long at the wrong temperature. It had subsequently fully cured and was no longer fit for purpose. As it was classified as a non-hazardous waste and because it was not feasible to recover it was and remains completely suitable for disposal at the facility.
Swan Bank Church at the NSGP Q&A asked, “why can't they be made to retrospectively install active landfill gas collection and a combustion plant, which converts methane to CO2?” Dr Salt explained that Red industries already have this system installed but maybe it was not functioning as well as it should. This year Red Industries have dug an extra ten holes and are installing a fourth generator.
Methane and Carbon dioxide make up 90-98% of landfill gas, with the remaining gases being nitrogen, oxygen, ammonia, sulphides, hydrogen and various other gases. Since the 1980s landfill gas has been a major source of renewable energy – by removing the harmful methane gases landfill produce.
The Environment Agency responding to the communities of Silverdale, Thistleberry, Keele and surrounding areas with their concerns of odour, have installed an Air Quality Monitoring Unit on the 24 February 2021. This is a mobile monitoring facility and will remain in place on Galingale View for at least 3 months. The plan is to collate data then give a full assessment when it is finished to the public, including health and environment impacts. Community updates whilst monitoring is taking place is also being considered as an option by the Environment Agency.
The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) produced a report in March 2020 that gives an up-to-date view how much rubbish the UK produces each year. 2016, it is estimated 41.1 million tonnes of commercial and industrial waste were produced. England generated four-fifths of this or 33.1 million tonnes, which increase to 36.1 million tonnes in 2017 and 27.3 million tonnes in 2018. The UK as a whole generated an eye watering 221 million tonnes of total waste in 2016, with 85% of which was generated by England alone.
There is an EU target for the UK to recycle at least 50% of household waste by 2020. In 2018 45.0% of household waste was recycled which was a decrease from the year before – 45.5% in 2017.
July 2019, Germany opened Europe’s most advanced packaging sorting facility, with an annual processing capacity of 100,000 tonnes. Waste management is essential part of the recycling chain, and a must have facility for local authorities if they are to meet government recycling targets.
Britain is lagging in a zero-waste strategy. Globally, cities and businesses have already started or have achieved targets of go zero waste by 2020. The benefits of going zero waste are huge. If the UK were to adopt this strategy today, 50,000 jobs will be created – CO2 emissions will reduce – community health benefits along with protecting the countryside and local communities from more landfill sites.
Adopting a zero-waste strategy will require money. The Institute for Fiscal Studies say the economic effects of COVID-19 on council finances has created “a perfect storm”. From personal protective equipment to taking on extra responsibilities – like housing rough sleepers – COVID-19 is draining local authority funding. Spending pressures are forecast to reach a staggering £4.4 billion during 2020-21. To add fuel to an already out of control flame, a shortfall in non-tax income of yet another eye-watering figure of £2.8 billion is also forecasted. Phase 2 of HS2 is expected to cost £44.6 billion.
Other Sources of Community Smells
Silverdale, Keele and Thistleberry are not the only communities in Newcastle-under-Lyme suffering from a stink. Chesterton, Maybank, Alsagers Bank and Bradwell have also reported having a stink. Dr Salt, at the NSGP Q&A discussed particle clouds from Walley’s Quarry travelling to other areas with the wind. This is one possibility of the stink being in other areas apart - yet we have seen no evidence that states Walley’s Quarry is the source of these other stinks. Farming could also be contributing to community stinks, the truth, without the science we just don’t know the source and speculation mixed with misinformation dilutes the concerns of the areas with major issues.
Animal manure is another source of ammonia. In areas intense with livestock production – specifically dairy and beef production – high concentrations of ammonia have been found. Ammonia is a powerful pollutant which can lodge deep in the lungs of humans. Muck spreading also causes high levels of ammonia. The New York State health department describe the smell of ammonia as an, “irritating gas with a sharp suffocating odour”.
Ammonia (NH3) and Hydrogen Sulphide (H2S) side effects are like the one’s residents who are exposed to the stink regularly complain of - coughing, irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat, headache, nausea, and breathing difficulties.
DEFRA have said, “From 2025 we will require farmers to spread slurry and digestate using only low-emission spreading equipment”. Prof Mark Sutton, environmental physicist at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, said slurry spraying in its current form “probably should be banned”.
In its new air pollution strategy, announced in January 2019, the government had a new focus on emissions of ammonia. The UKs farming industry has taken huge hits, both from Brexit and the pandemic. Andrew McCornick, NFUS President in The Courier says, “In my lifetime in farming I have seen some major events impacting on the industry. This pandemic and the Brexit Effect need to be in the ‘well I’m glad that’s over’ box to allow us to draw breath then kick on again.”
Going forward, farming will play a vital role in our fight against climate change. The National Farmers Union says that farmers need “considerable financial support” to make the changes in time to meet the government’s own timetable.
The health and living standards of Newcastle-under-Lyme residents are severely being affected by a stink, citizens need a focused scientific approach as to the causes and effects of the stink. As a community and country, we need to go zero waste as a matter of urgency – the health of people and the planet are relying on us. Farmers need support and investment so they can recover from both Brexit and the pandemic - then be our frontline soldiers in our fight against climate change.
Local authorities need government cash to invest in advanced packaging sorting facilities and communities need air quality monitors so experts and scientists can have a real time picture of problems, and act with imperativeness. Disinformation spread widely on social media is creating general misinformation and is fuelling the flames of opinion, diluting real issues of people living on or near the boundary. Cities and towns who are enduring critical environmental crisis’, such Newcastle-under-Lyme, cannot continue as is.
We are at a pivotal moment. If government are serious about meeting its recycling targets, or if they even dare to imagine reaching zero-waste, we urgently require our leadership to reassess their budget draining white elephant projects like HS2, and immediately prioritise farming communities and local authority investments.
Whether we like it or not, we have now entered a new world, where everyday living has had to adapt to the numerous global pandemics that are shaping our planet. The North Staffs Green Party believe that time for action is now and that we must initiate preparation for our uncertain and precarious future. We also believe that together we can make change happen before it’s too late.