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

some cases, notably in the foundry sector, this led to waste prevention effects, with
commensurate savings to the businesses concerned. 968
52.5.3 Hazardousness of Waste
In terms of reducing the hazardousness of waste, beyond the regulatory measures in
the Landfill Directive, levies and bans have not been widely used to influence the
generation of hazardous waste. One reason for this is that it is generally considered
‘potentially problematic’ to make treatment / disposal of hazardous waste much
more expensive than it already is because of the potential dangers associated with
illegal disposal of hazardous materials.
Some countries have bucked this trend and have applied increased levels of taxation
for hazardous materials, such as in Slovakia. In the Czech Republic there is a ‘risk’
component of the tax to cover hazardous materials. As a general principle, and as
mentioned in Section 52.11, high levels of taxation and unmanageable bans are to
be avoided to limit illegal dumping of environmentally damaging substances. Indeed,
there are good reasons to argue that hazardous materials ought not to be subject to
punitive measures so as to ensure that improper disposal of hazardous materials
does not become problematic.
In summary, the quantity of waste prevented and thus the waste prevention related
environmental benefits from the implementation of waste treatment taxes and bans
are likely to have been minimal, if there are in fact any at all. Benefits from the
reduction of materials which are hazardous in the context of landfilling may have
arisen following banning of such wastes from landfill.
52.5.4 Recycling
Some of the environmental benefits associated with recycling relate, as with waste
prevention, to avoidance of landfilling, but there will also be additional savings from
avoiding virgin material use, and the associated embodied energy achieved through
material recovery.
Recycling rates in most of the countries considered in this report have been
increasing (though in some, such as Denmark, this is barely discernable any more).
As with waste prevention, however, there is relatively little documented evidence to
demonstrate that the introduction of a tax or a ban on its own correlates strongly to
any increase in recycling.
In the UK, one study suggested that when it was first introduced, the tax led to several
companies reviewing their waste management operations, and changing
arrangements to increase recycling of waste. 969
968 See ECOTEC (1997), Effectiveness of the Landfill Tax in the UK: Barriers to Increased Effectiveness
and Options for the Future, A Final Report for Friends of the Earth, Birmingham: ECOTEC; D. Hogg
(1999), ‘The Effectiveness of the UK Landfill Tax - Early Indications’, in Sterner, Thomas (ed) (1999),
Environmental Implications of Market-based Policy Instruments, Cheltenham and :Edward Elgar
771
International Review of Waste Policy: Annexes