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

meant to finance the Modernisation Fund for Waste Management (MFWM) 925,
created in 1993.
The tax was introduced in 1993 at FRF 20 per tonne. The rate increased to FRF 60 (€
9.15) per tonne in 1995, which is still the standard rate for municipal and
comparable waste. Since 2003, sites with EMAS or ISO 14000 certification pay a
reduced rate of € 7.50 per tonne. Non-authorised landfills pay a rate of € 36.58 per
tonne of municipal waste, which is also the rate for special industrial waste. Since
1999, the tax is part of the TGAP (Taxe Générale sur les Activités Polluantes) 926 .
Initially the revenue was used to promote innovative methods of waste treatment and
to equip local authorities with sufficient funds to;
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� develop innovative technology for household and assimilated waste treatment;
� install waste treatment facilities, especially those which make use of
innovative technology;
� aid to local authorities on whose territory a new treatment plant for household
and assimilated waste is built; and
� aid the upgrading public landfill sites and restoring contaminated sites.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the low rate of the tax, relatively little impact was felt
from the tax measure. Hence, in 2002, a ban on untreated waste to landfills was
introduced as part of the TGAP policy. This was to enable France to meet the EU
landfill directive by reducing the quantity of, and level of biodegradability of, waste
disposed of at landfill.
The ban is intended to cover ‘ultimate wastes’. One study defines these as: 927
ultimate waste flow as a waste flow that is no longer suitable to be treated under
the current technical and ec economic ec onomic conditions, in particular, through recovering
of the component part that can be revalued or by the reduction of its
contaminated character.
The same study notes that the ban is not really enforced in Nord Pas-de-Calais in
France:
Household and equivalent waste flows may, in principle, no longer be disposed of
on the landfill site. However, this ban is not strictly enforced because of the lack
of adequate incineration capacity and the importance that NPDC attaches to the
925 The MFWM was run by the ADEME to support investments in local communities’ related to (1)
innovative household/assimilated waste treatment equipment (development or setting-up); (2) the
upgrading of landfill sites; (3) remediation of contaminated sites; and (4) new treatment facilities.
926 ECOTEC (2001) Study on the Economic and Environmental Implications of the use of Env. Taxes &
Charges in the EU.
927 OVAM (2007) Market Study of the Final Treatment of Residual Household Waste and Industrial
Waste Similar to Household Waste in Flanders and Neighbouring Regions: a Summary Report, August
2007.
International Review of Waste Policy: Annexes