Today’s reports from Derbyshire of a toxic landfill site not being dealt with the the Environment Agency remind me of this from the Guardian in December 2025:

UK and Europe’s hidden landfills at risk of leaking toxic waste into water supplies – Thousands of landfills across the UK and Europe sit in floodplains, posing a potential threat to drinking water and conservation areas if toxic waste is released into rivers, soils and ecosystems, it can be revealed.

and

‘I kept smelling a horrible nasty smell’: the risks of England’s old dumping grounds – For some, the smell brings on nausea and headaches. Others fear ‘forever chemicals’ seeping into the water – UK and Europe’s hidden landfills at risk of leaking toxic waste into water supplies

There’s no mention of Scotland though I feel your local Labour MP will happily suggest it’s just the same here, in Westminster debate, for their boss, the PM

What is the situation in Scotland after 18 years of SNP Government?

In 2007, in the last days of Labour, there were 110 known landfill sites. The data is checked for completeness by local authorities which, in Scotland, have not been subject to decades of Tory cost-cutting initiatives such as those mentioned in the Guardian report. There are currently only 40 landfill sites in Scotland.

Click to access waste-landfill-quality-report.pdf

Also:

Waste sent to landfill fell from around 7 million tonnes in 2005 to 2.3 million tonnes in 2022, and 2.0 million tonnes in 2023. Rapid decline in waste going to landfill recently, driven by shift from landfill to incineration. https://www.sepa.org.uk/media/4jsdkdg1/waste-landfill-quality-report.pdf

Landfill under SNP is now only 33%, one third, of that under Labour