Legislation
Landfill Levy
The use of taxes on solid waste is recognised as the most efficient way of containing the external cost to the environment. Yet it is not to be used in isolation. Increasingly, the UK will be urged to adopt a range of successful waste management practices such as those pioneered in Europe and the US, together with Tradable Pollution Permits (TPPs).
The landfill tax was first introduced in 1996 as a new and additional environmental tax. The aim of the tax was to encourage waste producers to look at ways of avoiding the use of landfill as a means of disposal and encourage waste producers and managers to select options which are higher up the waste hierarchy.
In the Chancellors March 2007 budget speech he announced that landfill tax was due to increase from £21 to £24 per tonne in April 2007 for active waste. He also announced that the active rate would then increase by £8 per tonne per year in subsequent years until 2011. The standard rate of tax for active waste will therefore be £32 per tonne for the year starting 1st April 2008.
The rate of Landfill tax for inactive rates, which has been held at £2 per tonne since 1996, will rise to £2.50 per tonne on 1st April 2008.
Tradable Pollution Permit systems, which have been introduced, include the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) and the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme (LATS).
The EU ETS works on a 'cap-and-trade' basis. EU countries, including the UK, have set an emissions cap (limit) and an emissions allocation for all businesses taking part in the scheme. The number of allowances allocated to each installation business for each phase is based on the UK’s National Allocation Plan. In a similar way the LATS sets a limit on the amount of biodegradable municipal waste, which each local authority can dispose of to landfill. If the local authority can divert more BMW than they need too meet their target then they can sell the surplus.
To read about Biffa's Landfill Communities Fund click on the logo below.
