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

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� Landfill operators.
Local Authorities effectively act as collectors of the landfill levy. To the extent that they
operate landfills themselves, they are required to remit their levy liability directly to
the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government (DoEHLG). Operators
of private landfill facilities are required to remit their levy liability to the relevant local
authority in whose functional area the facility is located. The authority will then
transfer the revenue to the DoEHLG.
The DoEHLG publishes an Environment Funds Account Report. This report details the
income from the environmental levy on the landfill of waste and also from the
environmental levy on plastic bags.
11.5 Monitoring and Measurement Techniques Applied
The income from the landfill levy is a direct measure of the waste being disposed of in
a landfill. This allows the DoEHLG to examine if this levy actually disincentives waste
contractors (public and private) from disposing of waste in landfills.
It is the function of each local authority to enforce and audit compliance with the levy
requirement within its functional area. The local authorities must prepare and submit
annual reports to the Minister of the Environment and Local Government on their
enforcement activities. Section 12 of the Waste Management (Landfill Levy)
Regulations 2008 states that:
“For the purpose of ensuring compliance with these Regulations, a relevant
landfill facility shall be subject to inspection and audit by, as the case may be,
a relevant local authority, a Local Government Auditor or any other auditor
appointed by the Minister or a local authority for that purpose.”
11.5.1 Evaluation Studies Available
The effect on waste prevention of the landfill levy is somewhat indirect and therefore
very difficult to measure. Even if one could identify a change in the quantity of waste
generated, tracing back this to the levy itself would not be straightforward. There are
no evaluation studies, which have really sought to understand the effects of the levy
other than in respect of the revenue generated.
During the course of this review, work has been published concerning the way in
which PBU systems might interface with the landfill levy to influence waste arisings,
and to influence the level of recycling achievement. However, these studies assume a
direct correspondence between PBU systems and the level of the levy, suggesting
that weight based systems necessarily reflect the cost of disposal directly in their
existing, and future, pricing structures. Whilst this could be the case, and whilst some
schemes such as the Schweinfurt scheme described in Annex 9.0, seek to relate
weight-based pricing directly to the marginal benefits of avoided disposal, it is not
International Review of Waste Policy: Annexes