AFTER 24 years and more than five million tonnes of waste, Calne landfill site has received its very last load of rubbish before being wound down.

The Viridor run landfill, which has been in operation since 1992, following an accelerated wind down programme that will see it restored to a variety of land uses including woodland, grassland and even an apple orchard.

Calne has been at the centre of a scheme allowing Bristol City and South Gloucestershire Councils to dispose of household non-recycled waste.

Ian Morrish, director of landfill energy for Viridor, said: “With the way we view waste in the UK changing so dramatically from a problem to a valuable resource, landfill sites are now closing across the country.

“Resource management in the UK is now anchored around recycling as much as possible and then recovering energy from what remains.

“Calne has been an integral site to our South West operations over the last two decades and now that it is shut, we are able to focus fully on the aftercare programme, although some wildlife is not waiting for us to finish, with many deer already making the site their home.”

Viridor is reducing the operational landfills it controls down to three strategic sites, with a series of landfills entering restoration in 2016.

The 42-hectare site received up to 350,000 tonnes of waste in a year and the material filled specially engineered cells that are up to 35 metres deep in places.

John Lockwood, chief executive of Viridor Credits Environmental Company, said: “Over the lifetime of the site, Viridor Credits has been able to support a number of projects in the local area from Viridor’s contribution to the Landfill Communities Fund.

“Over £1.38 million of Landfill Communities Fund monies has helped to transform a range of facilities from additional football pitches at the Beversbrook Sports and Community Facility to the installation of interpretation boards at the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust’s Blackmoor Copse and Vincent’s Wood along with a wide range of other community, heritage and biodiversity projects.”