ABSTRACT
Increasing pressure is being placed both on industry and government to decrease the amounts of waste being sent to landfill in Europe. The European Community Landfill Directive (EC, 1999) sets strict limits on the amount of biodegradable municipal waste that can be disposed of via landfill; the amounts must be reduced by 65 per cent in 2020 compared with 1995 levels (EC, 1999). As a result, there are strong legislative and government drivers to recycle and re-use materials that in the past would have been destined for landfill as the cheapest way of disposal.
