Scotland is typical of many advanced consumer economies as it imports a large proportion of its goods from countries which rely on carbon intensive energy sources and large proportions of potentially recyclable material are disposed of instead.
A shop owner, Linda Law, who has lived in Freckleton for 25 years and has three children, said she was scared by the prospect of radioactive materials being disposed of so close by.
More standard procedures are required, similar to common drug testing protocols to properly classify, evaluate, and protect against these materials, particularly after "end of service" use, when these types of materials are disposed in landfills.
Various materials were disposed of in the area, including petroleum waste oil, pipe and foam insulation, sewage sludge, and medical waste.
But it was also, according to people who worked there, a hazardous waste site, at which classified equipment and materials were disposed of in an illegal and extremely dangerous manner.
Materials were disposed of according to Biosafety guidelines.
The bulk density of tephra could have an influence of the total volume of material that is disposed of and the disposal site requirements.
Here we have used deposit thickness to estimate volume, but thickness of deposits can naturally compact up to 50% within just a few days and could further compact during the transportation in trucks, which would reduce the volume of material that is disposed (Blong et al. 2011; Engwell et al. 2013; Hayes et al. 2015).
How it is disposed of would depend on the area or the state of the material.
