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

to-door source-separation schemes have tended to be higher than collection based
around refuse collection for disposal only. This has been because the cost of disposal
has been so low. However, past increases in landfill tax are already making separate
collection more economically favourable longer-term, this already being the case for
many materials such as paper and card, and where refuse frequency is reduced at
the same time, for food waste also. 671 The financial rationale for recycling is likely to
strengthen as landfill taxes are set to increase in future years.
The Netherlands provides an example of increasing costs resulting from minimum
recycling standards. Its system of municipality responsibility from collection until the
transfer station, followed by the shift of responsibility to the producer incurred a per
capita waste levy increase. The levy more than doubled between 1991 and 1997,
standing at 377 guilders (£122) in 2000. 672 However, it should be stated that this
was a period during which the cost of disposal also increased as a consequence of
landfill taxes and bans, so the increase in costs could not be attributed to the
changes in the collection system alone.
It should be noted that no such producer responsibility systems exist to support the
collection of biowaste by those countries tasked with doing so according to their
waste policies. Nonetheless, costs for the collection of biowastes need not be
enormous: a large amount of any additional cost has been linked to the tendency to
pull out of the waste stream materials which might otherwise not have been collected
at all (e.g. garden waste) or would otherwise have been delivered to bring sites. As a
result, countries with biowaste collections, notably Belgium, Austria and Germany,
strongly promote home composting alongside the biowaste collection and Italy and
parts of Catalunya have designed collection systems to specifically target kitchen
waste only. 673 A detailed modelling study undertaken by Eunomia on food waste
collection systems in the United Kingdom found that collection operations were more
or less cost-neutral where residual waste collection frequencies were reduced at the
same time. Recent shifts in the cost of treatment and disposal of waste are making
the separate collection of food waste increasingly cost effective. 674 Likewise, at higher
disposal costs and/ or higher participation rates, recycling schemes overall will begin
to pay for themselves (particularly once reaching a 12.5 % diversion rate), though the
degree to which this will be the case will rely on the market price of the recyclable
671 Eunomia (2008) Mid Devon District Council Kerbside Collection Report, Report produced for WRAP;
Eunomia (2007) WRAP REP.
672 ECOTEC Research and Consulting Limited (2000) Beyond the Bin: The Economics of Waste
Management Options, Report produced for Friends of the Earth, UK Waste and Waste Watch. Available
at http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/reports/economics_waste_options.pdf
673 Eunomia (2001) Costs for Municipal Waste Management in the EU, Final Report to Directorate
General Government, European Commission.
674 Eunomia (2008) Food Waste Collection: Update to WRAP Cost Benefit Study, Report produced for
WRAP.
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