The rubbish tips in Sussex are filling up as time runs out for landfill sites. They will all be full within three years if households and businesses produce waste at the current rate. More giant tips are planned but climate change issues are forcing us to find alternatives. Rachel Fitch reports.

  • Ribbons of shredded plastic bags flutter in the wind on a dusty wasteland in the middle of the South Downs.
  • Hordes of seagulls gather for fresh pickings from trucks queuing up to shed their loads.

This is Beddingham landfill, near Lewes, and I am standing on 50m of compacted rubbish as solid underfoot as the surrounding hills.

Yellow bags containing low-grade clinical waste, like adult incontinence pads, are piled up.

A child's plastic buggy is parked on its side and a toilet cistern lies among bits of car tyre.

In a few years it will be capped with chalk and grassed over to blend in with the rest of the landscape.

Beddingham already has two landfill pits that have been filled and now have cattle grazing on top.

The site has been taking rubbish from households and businesses for more than 20 years and only one part remains open.

Karl Brydon, unit manager for operator Viridor Waste Management, said: "In 2008 or 2009 this site will be shut and that will have a knock-on effect on the others near Shoreham and Hastings, which are on similar deadlines at the moment.

"Once we shut and they start taking our rubbish, they won't be far behind us in closing.

"Based on current inputs, there won't be any landfill sites in Sussex by 2010 unless a new one opens."

He explained that the former chalk quarry has been filled section by section.

A thick sheet, like pond liner, is laid at the bottom of the huge hole to stop pollutants contaminating underground water streams.

Every day about 160 dustbin lorries dump their loads, totalling 1,000 tonnes.

Rubbish collected within 20 miles is taken directly to the tip. Anything from further away goes to a waste transfer station first.

Beddingham receives 165,000 tonnes of domestic waste a year from homes in Brighton and Hove, Lewes and north Wealden.

Commercial rubbish is brought from as far afield as Crawley, Eastbourne and Worthing.

Mr Brydon said: "Quite often I'm amazed at the kind of things people throw away and how wasteful they can be.

"In commercial waste we see customer returns being sent here rather than going back to the manufacturer.

Businesses that are relocating will also dump their stock rather than taking it with them."

Lin Worsley, Viridor's communications manager, said: "Once you see a landfill site you know why recycling is important.

"It's not until people have seen it for themselves that they start to realise.

"Consumers need to take some responsibility for the landfill problem because it all starts with how much we use.

"We all put our bags outside the front door and don't really think about what happens to it after that.

But this is the reality."

She said 85 per cent of rubbish that was sent to landfill could have been recycled.

Mr Brydon added: "Recycling is working but it's not making a dent on the amount of rubbish coming into landfill sites because more and more packaging is being used.

"We are still getting the same amount of rubbish at landfill."

All trucks are weighed on arrival so the amount of landfill tax can be calculated per tonne of rubbish.

They are then driven to the top of the pit, where mechanical ramps push waste out from inside.

Massive diggers, weighing up to 50 tonnes and with 7ft wheels, then roll over the waste to push it in place and pack it down.

The mound gets incredibly dusty as rubbish disintegrates and it has to be sprayed regularly with water.

Gas cannons and flares are used to scare the seagulls away and pest controllers visit at least once a month to get rid of vermin.

Methane gas is produced in copious amounts by landfill and is pumped off into the national grid for electricity.

The power plant at Beddingham constantly generates four million watts - enough to power every household in Lewes.

Leachate is another by-product of the rubbish and is similar to the liquid that collects at the bottom of dustbins.

It is drained away and sent to sewage treatment works to be recycled. Viridor will have to manage the site after it shuts until the Environment Agency announces it is safe.

There are currently 13 landfill sites in West Sussex, six in East Sussex and none in Brighton and Hove.

The Environment Agency, which licenses and monitors them, says more action is needed to cut the amount of waste being sent.

Chief Executive Barbara Young said: "Landfill should be the last resort for waste that we cannot recover or recycle, as it is not sustainable to keep sending it to landfill.

"Both business and consumers need to reduce, reuse and recycle more. By making small changes we can work towards reducing our dependence on landfills as we are still burying too much of our rubbish."

West Sussex County Council is considering extending landfills at Laybrook Brickworks, in Thakeham, near Storrington, and Langhurstwood Quarry and Brookhurst Wood, both at Warnham, near Horsham.

East Sussex County Council recently approved a waste incinerator at Newhaven and is thinking about extending sites at Pebsham, near Hastings, and Beddingham.