RE-USE OF LANDFILL SITES IN NORTH-

BRABANT, NETHERLANDS

R.L. BEYNEN

Province of North-Brabant, Department of Soil and Waste-disposal, P.O. Box

90151, 5200 MC ‘s-Hertogenbosch

SUMMARY: The Province of North Brabant is in need of space for house building, industrial
sites, recreation and nature. To economize space and primary raw materials former and
operational landfills can be re-used and redevelopped. From an environmental point of view
former and operational landfills need aftercare to protect the environment. The Province of North
Brabant has taken the lead in starting a policy-program to stimulate the re-use and
redevelopment of former and operational landfills. Initiators of such projects have to draft a plan
of re use. The Province judges the environmental aspects of the plan. The Province is stimulating
these projects by subsidizing the cost of supplementary study and planning. Also a special team
is set up to coordinate plans and to gather know how of 5 different pilotprojects.

1. INTRODUCTION

The regional government ‘Province of North-Brabant’ want to stimulate the re-use and
redevelopment of 600 former landfills and 9 operational landfills. These former and operational
landfill sites take in our densely populated region more than 1200 hectares of space. These sites
are to make suitable for house-building, industrial sites, recreation, agriculture or nature. Former
and operational landfill sites do also contain a lot of energy and secundary raw material.
Especially waste of buildings can be used after granulation in the construction of roads and
bridges. So these landfill sites can also be seen as sites to be mined for secundary raw materials.
The free coming space can be used for house-building or industrial site. Landfill sites are
potential risks for the environment because of the waste and in most cases the lack of protecting
facilities. The pressure on the re-use of the space, which former landfill sites take, is high in the
Province of North Brabant.
Not only the need for space and secundary raw materials triggers the re-use of former landfill
sites in the Province of North-Brabant also the national examination program of the former
landfill sites do. Provisional results of this program show that in about 70% of the examined
landfill sites there is no serious pollution of the surrounding groundwater and of the caps. These
provisional results are acknowledged by recent research of natural attenuation in former landfill
sites. So the environmental risks of these former landfill sites are less than expected before.

Proceedings Sardinia 2003, Ninth International Waste Management and Landfill Symposium
S. Margherita di Pula, Cagliari, Italy; 6 - 10 October 2003
 2003 by CISA, Environmental Sanitary Engineering Centre, Italy
2. NEED FOR REGIONAL POLICY

Local governments, operators and development corporations are more and more initiating
projects to redevelop former landfill sites. The problem is however that specific legislation and
regulation is lacking for this category of landfill sites. The national examination-program of
these landfill sites is not yet finished. This program is expected to be finished in 2004. It is to be
expected that it will last years before the results will be analysed and national legislation on the
former landfill sites will be installed.
The Province of North-Brabant has decided that it can not wait till the national government
has installed specific legislation on the aftercare of former landfill sites. For this reason the
Province of North Brabant has started a policy-program on the redevelopment and re-use of
former landfill sites. In this policy-scheme the re-use of operational landfill sites, when these
landfills will be closed in the near future, is also regulated.
In advance of the elaboration of this policy-program the difference in aftercare of operational
and former landfills will be explained.

3. AFTERCARE OF OPERATIONAL AND FORMER LANDFILL SITES

Landfills are sources wich can affect the soil and the groundwater. People can contact waste
material wich has been dumped in the past. Aftercare is to make sure that a closed landfill site
can not harm the environment. This can be done by taking environmental measures to remove
and control risks.

neerslag
Rain

stortplaats
Landfill

Surface
maaiveld
processen
Proces level

grondwaterspiegel
Water table
vastlegging
Containment

Naturalmicrobiologische
attenuation
afbraak

Figure 1. drawing of a landfill

Since 1998 operational landfills are subjected to the Dutch national Decree on Waste Disposal
and Soil Protection at Landfills in which the aftercare is prescribed. Since the early nineties
(1990) the Province of North Brabant is examining the former landfilsites in wich in the years
1950 to 1980 waste material was dumped. These former landfill sites are to be examined in two
stages; historical- and fieldresearch. All regions in the Netherlands are now monitoring the
groundwater and surface water. Also the density and quality of the protectioncaps of in total
3800 former landfill sites are examined.

3.1. Aftercare of operational landfill sites

In the Province of North Brabant are 9 operational and 600 former landfills located.

Legend
9 Operational landfills
600 Former landfills
urbanisation

Figure 2. Location of operational (□) and former (▲) landfills in North Brabant

The operational landfills in North-Brabant are subjected to the Dutch national Decree on Waste
Disposal and Soil Protection. The landfills wich were in 1996 still open are subjected to this law
of aftercare. The provinces as regional governments are responsible for carrying out this national
law. Since the introduction of this Dutch national Decree on Waste Disposal and Soil protection
the province of North Brabant is implementing the aftercare for the 9 operational landfills. This
means that aftercare plans are approved by the Province and a site-specific aftercare levy is
introduced. For administration of the tax a special fund is estableshed. This fund is managing the
money that is labelled for the eternal aftercare of the landfills when they will be closed. We
expect that in 2005 the first operational landfill will be closed. Before closing the landfill will be
inspected by the Province. Also an organisation will be set up for plannning and executing the
aftercare activities on the operational landfills when they are closed.
3.2. Aftercare of former landfills
The former landfills are closed before 1996. The image of these former landfills is that they are
numerous (3800) and that it will be very costly to remove all former landfills. So late nineties
(1999) a national-program to examine former landfills was set up. The provinces also carry out
this program. In 2000 the infra structure of drains was constructed to examine the polutants in
the groundwater surrounding the former landfills. The groundwater has to be examened at least
three times. In our province results of two examinations are available. In about 70% of the cases
no serious action levels are exceeded. Also processes of natural attenuation are at work. In about
30% of the cases some signal levels of pollutans are found. Next year the examinationprogram
will be finished and will be continued in a program of execution.

4. POLICY PAPER ON RE-USE AND REDEVELOPMENT OF LANDFILL SITES

The object of the policy-program in North-Brabant is on the one hand to regulate and on the
other hand to stimulate re-use or redevelopment of landfills. The Province of North-Brabant
wants to achieve these objects by putting environmental requirements and instruments of
stimulation forward. Instruments of stimulation are financial incentives, organisational task-force
and gathering experiences in pilotprojects.

4.1. Environmental requirements

In the policy-program of North Brabant initiators of re-use and redevelopment of landfill sites
have to draft a plan of re-use which is for the environmental risks to be judged by the Province.
This plan must contain, related to the new function which is to be developed, the following
elements:
• the examination which is carried out;
• a judgement of the risks on emissions of pollutants and contacts now and in the future;
• the facilities which have to be constructed for controlling or minimising the environmental
risks;
• and the aftercare (technical, financial and organisational) of the facilities.
The re-use plan has to comply to the following conditions:
• on the aspects of spatial planning, environment and economics the plan must result in a
sustainable use of the former or closed landfill site;
• the landfill is in principal not to be moved
• and the function to be developed is leading in the judgement of the Province.
Together with these general requirements there are also specific requirements on the level of
examination, the judgement of the risks, the facilities to be constructed and the aftercare. The
specific requirements distinguish in former and closed landfill sites. In order to facilitate
initiators the Province of North Brabant has drawn up a re-use checklist.

4.2. Financial instruments

To stimulate the re-use and redevelopment of former and closed landfill sites the Province of
North-Brabant wants to set up a fund for the environmental risks of the landfill. Initiators look
upon the environmental risks of the landfill as a big financial risk in their exploitation. They ask
the Province to take these financial risks over. The Province can not take these financial risks
because of the principal that the one who pollute also have to pay for clearing the pollution. The
one who knows or should know that the site can be polluted is responsible. The Province of
North-Brabant is willing to set up a fund. Initiators can insure themselves against the financial
risks of potential emissions in the future.
An other instrument is to subsidize the costs of drafting a re-use plan. The Province of North-
Brabant is willing to grant € 25.000,- for each re-use plan that is judged and decided upon. The
subsidy hold for three years.

4.3. Organisational instruments

As an organisational instrument the Province of North-Brabant has set up an aftercare team. This
unit co-ordinate the different aspects in the provincial organisation. Initiators has in regard to the
re-use of former and closed landfill sites only one person to address to. The Province of North-
Brabant also examines the possibility of establishing public-private partnership(s) to develop
former landfill sites. Last but not least the Province of North- Brabant make all information on
former landfill sites public. Everybody can consult the information which is collected last years
on these former landfill sites at the internet.

4.4. Pilotprojects
To gather know how and practical experiences in redevelopment of landfills the Province of
North-Brabant has selected in 2001 5 pilotprojects. In these pilotprojects landfills will be made
suitable for house-building, industrial site, recreation, nature and landfillmining of secunday raw
materials. The following pilotprojects are subsidized in order to research the specific bottlenecks
in the redevelopment of the landfill sites:
• Oosterhout (house building)
• Breda (industrial site)
• Oisterwijk (soccerfields including accomodation)
• Zundert (realisation of ecological area)
• Den-Bosch (landfillmining of secundary material and house building).
A former landfillsite in Oosterhout will be incorporated in a project of house building. The
whole area is about 37 hectares and the houses will be build along the landfill. The major
bottleneck in house building at former landfillsites is wether people want to live there because of
the environmental risks of the landfill. Future occupants are interviewed on the social-
psychological aspects of living on former landfills. It seems that open communication about risks
and facilities can help to win trust that risks are in control and there are no reasons to worry
about.
The former landfill in Breda is planned to be an industrial site. The landfill site is about 30
hectares and the landfilling has stopped in 1993. This landfill site is equipped with
environmental facilities such as a capping, drainage and groundwatercontrol. The major
bottleneck is here how to integrate the aftercare measures in the exploitation of the landfill as an
industrial area. A secundairy bottleneck is how to build on the surface of a landfill site.
In Oisterwijk 4 new soccerfields and accomodation will be realised on a former landfill site.
The bottlenecks in this project are legislation and the technical realisation of the project. The
bottleneck in legislation wil be solved in the regional policy-program of North-Brabant. The
Province will also ask the national government to facilitate re-use and redevelopment of landfill
sites in national legislation.
The former landfill in Zundert will be integrated in an ecological area. The bottleneck in this
pilotproject is the division of the financial risks of the landfill. Owners of landfills have to pay
compensation when the landfill causes damage. They also have to pay the removal of landfill if
necessary. For this reason private organisations in nature conservation do not want the ownership
of the landfills. These organisations prefer the removal of the landfill instead.
In Den Bosch an operational landfill of about 11 hectares can be used for mining the
secundary raw materials. Especially waste of buildings is dumped here in large quantities. The
feasibility of 4 different designs of the landfill site are studied. Financial, technical, juridical and
social-psychological aspects of re use and redevelopment of the landfill are taken into
consideration. The bottleneck is that landfillmining of secundary material is financially not
profitable because of the national tax on waste disposal. Waste that can not be re-used has to be
dumped elsewhere at an operational landfill site.

5. CONCLUSIONS

The Province of North Brabant has set up a specific policy programma to stimulate the re-use
and redevelopment of former and operational landfills. On the one hand initiators of re-use and
redevelopment of landfill sites have to draft a plan of re-use. The Province judge the
environmental risks. On the other hand the Province stimulate projects in subsidizing
complementary costs of study and planning. A special team is set up to co-ordinate and
supporting projects. Know how and experiences are gathered in 5 different pilotprojects. In these
pilotprojects landfills will be made suitable for house-building, industrial site, recreation, nature
and landfillmining of secunday raw materials.

REFERENCES

Ammerlaan R.A., Foppen E (2001) Landfill after care: South Holland. Proceedings Sardinia
2001, Eight International Waste Management and Landfill Symposium.
Draft Policypaper on Re-use of landfill sites (2003) Province of North Brabant, Den-Bosch.