THE island is set to export its hazardous waste again – and pay the price. Shipments to the UK were banned in mid-2001 because the island had not signed up to European regulations.

The Basle Convention has been extended to Guernsey and the Health and Social Services Department is now requesting special permission to export.

But waste disposal will cost more than before because of another EU directive – one that the island has not adopted.

New EU rules have cut the number of UK landfill sites that can take dangerous materials and now more than one million tons of toxic waste has nowhere to go.

UK experts are predicting that the cost of disposal at landfill is set to double.

And the department believes that the cost of exports will also rise. Previously, the States paid between £3,500 and £4,500 per tonne for getting rid of toxic waste – companies paid the full charge and the States paid for public waste.

‘This will have some effect and, although some price increase is foreseen, the extent is not yet known,’ said a department spokesperson.

Hazardous waste such as asbestos and biodegradable pesticides is disposed of at Mont Cuet, but others, including recoverable wastes, cannot be because of the nature of the landfill.

Guernsey used to export this hazardous waste to the UK, but that has been banned since mid-2001. Material has since been stored in drums and containers by the States and several private companies.

In October last year, chief health and safety officer Richard Brown accepted that the risk to public health and safety was increasing daily because the drums corroded and there was a risk of leakage.

The department is asking the UK’s Environment Agency for special permission to export waste.

But a new EU Landfill Directive that has come into force in the UK means hazardous and non-hazardous wastes now have to be stored separately.

As a result, the number of landfill sites available for hazardous wastes has dropped from 200 to 12.

More than five million tons of such waste is produced every year, with two million tons going to landfill. The UK Government estimates that there will be capacity to dispose of only one million.

‘It is not yet clear how the reduction in the number of hazardous waste landfills in the UK will affect our potential exports of hazardous waste,’ said the spokesperson.

Costs will rise because of inflation since 2001 and because of the reduction in landfill sites and the resulting less-competitive market. Some wastes exported from Guernsey will not go for disposal at sites other than landfill so the costs are yet unclear.