LAWR

LANDFILL MANAGEMENT Diverting waste from landfill: Past, present and future ooking back at this history of landfill, a shift towards other options commenced in 1996 with the introduction of landfill tax at a standard rate of £7 per tonne and a lower rate of £2 per tonne for inactive waste. Successive annual escalators were applied to the standard rate, culminating in an £8 per tonne per year escalator from 2007, running until 2013/14. The lower rate of landfill tax increased once in 2008, from £2 to £2.50 per tonne of inactive waste. Alongside efforts to push material up the waste hierarchy by fiscal means, the early 'game-changers' were the EU Landfill Directive 1999/31/ EC, which set legal targets for the diversion of biodegradable municipal waste, and the introduction of UK statutory household waste recycling and composting targets. The latter were superseded by Waste Directive 2008/98/EC, which set a recycling and "preparing for reuse" target of 50% by 2020, for four material streams. Landfill policy is not determined in isolation, but by the level and urgency of ambition further up the waste hierarchy. Change levers include fiscal instruments to deter landfilling (landfill tax) or to encourage alternative options (green energy certificates), and regulatory instruments such as landfill bans or recycling targets. However, effecting change using landfill tax has a far longer timeframe than, say, implementing a landfill ban. Towards zero waste This is where the policies of the devolved administrations diverge. Supporting mandatory source segregation of key recyclables and food waste, and a recycling target of 70% by 2025, Scotland has introduced a ban on these materials going directly to landfill or incineration, together with a landfill ban on municipal biodegradable waste by 1 January 2021, with a de minimis biodegradability threshold applying to landfilled residual municipal waste. Also setting a 70% recycling target by 2025 and directing separated materials to alternative options, Wales' strategy 'Towards Zero Waste' envisages a maximum of 5% of municipal waste landfilled by 2025. These measures mirror standard practice in much of Northern Europe. In contrast, England jettisoned local authority recycling targets in 2011, and views bans and other unilateral forms of prescription as unwelcome. Landfill tax and the EU recycling target are the only drivers moving material up the waste hierarchy in 24 Local Authority Waste & Recycling April 2015 L Landfill's place at the bottom of the waste hierarchy tends to give it 'wooden spoon' status but, at the same time, belies its importance as an essential, though diminishing, component of integrated waste management solutions, argues SUEZ Environnement Gev Eduljee. Here, he unpicks this issue.

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