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

disposal costs necessarily would lead to changes in marginal rates being charged for
disposal. Hence, the interaction between pay-by-use and waste taxes cannot be
assumed to be always predictable.
52.5.1 Waste Prevention
The environmental benefits from any waste prevention effects would be expected to
include:
765
� reductions in greenhouse gases and aquatic and soil toxicity effects
associated with less material managed in landfill;
� reductions in energy consumption associated with a lower demand for goods;
and
� less hazardous material in the waste stream.
52.5.2 Reduction in Waste Generated?
As might be expected for policies developed principally to discourage disposal, the
evidence presented suggests there is minimal effect on waste prevention from these
policies on their own, and that any preventative effect ought, probably, to be
attributed to the combination of policies at work in a specific country, and the general
attitude to waste management of the population.
In 2004, almost a decade after the Dutch landfill ban had been implemented, VROM
(2004) stated that: 954
‘A weak point in current waste management is that there is still insufficient
grip on the quantity of waste produced, particularly consumer waste, which is
still increasing. The situation is being exacerbated as these are also the waste
streams for which the level of recovery is lagging behind the targets. A great
deal of combustible and recoverable waste is consequently still being
disposed of in landfills because, when planning incineration capacity, it had
been assumed that the waste supply would be smaller and the degree of
separate collection higher.’
Another study noted, regarding the Dutch ban: 955
the effect on prevention is very indirect and very difficult to measure. One has
to see it as a measure that raises prices in the waste management systems,
and that hence, where there is a system for producer responsibility, indirectly
some incentive is created for re-design of products in such a way that less
waste is created.
954 VROM (2004) The National Waste Management Plan, Ministry of Housing, Planning and the
Environment, The Hague.
955 Eunomia et al (2007) Household Waste Prevention Policy Side Research Programme, Final Report
for Defra.
International Review of Waste Policy: Annexes