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

environmental performance. The landfill tax has been highlighted as the reason
behind many waste minimisation, recycling and segregation initiatives identified by
the programme.
In addition to this Kautto and Melanen explain that in Finland economic instruments
(including the waste tax) have stimulated companies to increase the recovery of
waste, although in most cases the costs of waste management were relatively low. 981
The authors argue that this can be at least partly explained by the fact that many of
the companies they studied were located in municipalities in which the municipal
waste charges had traditionally been low. 982 When the charges had grown relatively
rapidly in the late 1990s and the national waste tax had been implemented in 1996,
this had given the firms a signal concerning anticipated developments, making them
search for new ways to minimise wastes. Many of their interviewees also felt that
taxation and other economic instruments are appropriate tools for enhancing ecoefficiency
and sound waste management.
The limited evidence base here seems to suggest that there is somewhat more of a
link between taxation and a reduction in disposal of C&I wastes. Unfortunately no
study has been found specifically concerning the evaluation of landfill bans in terms
of waste minimisation, so no further analysis can be made. The evidence suggests
that the environmental benefits from the policies in relation to C&I wastes are small
but potentially have a further capacity for increase if the price signal is continued to
be passed though at an appropriate level.
52.6 Implementation Costs
For a landfill ban the costs are essentially those associated with the design of the
system, administration and publicity needed to inform the stakeholders affected by
the ban i.e. landfill operators and wastes generators. These costs would also be
applicable to landfill taxes. In addition there would also be the costs of measuring the
weight of material disposed of at landfill, for example, by weighbridges.
Several landfill taxes and bans limit the nature of waste by certain proxies to
biodegradability such as:
783
� Limits on Total Organic Content (TOC);
� Limits on Total Carbon Content; or
� Limits on Calorific Value (CV).
These all require some calculation or measurement to be taken. There will be some
cost incurred by the agency setting up and administering this type of system. No
specific financials were found in the literature, however.
981 P. Kautto and M. Melanen (2004) How does industry respond to waste policy instruments – Finnish
experiences, Journal of Cleaner Production, 12(1), 1-11
982 H. Bartelings, P. van Beukering, O. Kuik, V. Linderhof, F. Oosterhuis, L. Brander and A. Wagtendonk
(2005) Effectiveness of Landfill Taxation, R-05/05, Report Commissioned by Ministerie von VROM,
November 24, 2005.
International Review of Waste Policy: Annexes