International Review of Waste Management Policy - Department of ...

terms of waste processing and disposal facilities and programmes for education and
prevention.
As a result of this, those Local Authorities who have remained in the household waste
collection system, have identified difficulties in recovering (what they feel are) the
total costs incurred in the implementation of the PBU / separated household waste
collection service at a price competitive with collection fees charged by other
operators in the market.
7.11 Complementary Policies
A number of policies exist which compliment changes in the presentation of waste at
household level. These policies are complementary because they aim to achieve
some of the same objectives, including the minimisation of waste materials and
household waste generated, and an increase in the amounts being recycled with the
aim of materials and energy recovery. These are:
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� The Landfill Levy (see Annex 11.0);
� The Circular WPPR 17/08 (see Annex 33.0); and
� The Packaging Regulations.
7.12 Effect of the Policy on Pricing of Resources / Services
The intention of PBU is to give incentives to households to use the waste
management service in a more efficient manner. The degree to which PBU has
achieved this objective depends upon the specifics of the charging mechanism used.
Other things being equal, however, the aim is to ensure that, at the margin,
households consider the quantity of waste they generate and how it is managed.
Although recycling rates have increased, depending upon charging structures used,
the system has the disadvantage of allowing households to believe that recycling is
‘free’. 147 Some pricing structures – possibly most to date – have not highlighted the
fact that collection and processing of all waste, whether black bin, green bin or brown
bin, has associated expenses. The issue ought to be about setting the right price
differentials. Furthermore, offering a ‘free’ recycling service and a relatively high
marginal charge on refuse may have the effect of increasing the level of
contamination of the recycling containers if, at the margin, the incentive is high, and
the potential for quality checks is low (as it undoubtedly is with bin-based recycling
schemes).
In addition some Local Authorities have been dissatisfied with the lack of
transparency in the charging systems used by private waste collectors within their
functional area. The local authority state that itemised bills are not issued to
householders by collectors (at least in the case of fixed fee, tag based or potentially
volume based charging) prompting the concern that the reduced waste to landfill is
147 A. O Callaghan-Platt and A. Davies (2007) A Nationwide Review of Pay-By-Use Domestic Waste
Charges in Ireland, Interim Report to the EPA.
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