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

Table 11-5: RPS Rates for Household Waste Recycled (2008 rates, € per tonne
recycled)
Material Material Material
Kerbside Kerbside Kerbside Bring Bring
Bring
Glass Packaging (e.g. bottles, jars, etc.) 20.00 20.00
Glass Packaging open loop recycling 4.20 4.20
Paper Packaging (e.g. cereal boxes, etc.) 76.23 68.14
Used Beverage Containers 76.23 68.14
Aluminium Packaging (e.g. drinks cans, etc.) 76.23 68.14
Steel Packaging (e.g. food packaging, etc.) 96.80 86.53
Plastic Packaging - Plastic Rigid Bottles 220.00 220.00
Other Plastic Packaging – tubs, pots, trays, jars 76.23 68.14
Source: Repak
In summary, as regards recycling, it seems reasonable to suggest that one of the
most powerful influences will have been exerted by the increase in pre-levy landfill
gate fees since the second half of the 1990s. Also important in recent years will have
been the buoyant market for secondary materials. Importantly, the market has now
shifted from one where quality barely mattered, to one where the market only wants
quality materials. This will certainly be affecting low quality mixed paper grades
destined for the export market, in turn, tending to encourage collectors to consider
quality more closely than they might hitherto have done.
However, the levy has raised revenues, which are paid into an Environment Fund. This
was established by the Waste Management (Amendment) Act 2001 (No.36 of 2001)
and is managed and controlled by the Minister for the Environment and Local
Government. The fund was established with effect from 17 th July 2001. The details of
how the Environmental Fund 2006 was spent on waste prevention and recycling is
outlined below.
The proceeds from both the landfill levy and the plastic bag levy, collected by local
authorities, are paid into the fund and the money is used for a range of measures
including programmes and schemes to prevent or reduce waste, operation of waste
recovery activities, litter prevention, environmental partnership projects and
environmental awareness, education and training.
11.6.1 Environmental Benefits – Prevention
There are no statistics available which would allow for a confident prediction of the
influence of the waste levy on waste growth either in the household or non-household
municipal waste streams. The rate of waste growth prior to the introduction of the
landfill levy is not well known. As such, it is difficult to assess whether waste growth
has been materially influenced by the levy. There are studies which have assessed
the sensitivity of demand for waste services with respect to price, but these tend to
suggest inelastic responses, so that with the effects on landfill prices being relatively
small, the price effect would be expected to be similarly weak.
We are not aware of any attempt to evaluate the environmental benefits of the
expenditure of fund revenues, but they might reasonably be assumed to have been
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