 |
   
Overview
Part 3 of the Waste Minimisation Act 2008 enables a levy to be imposed on waste disposed of to landfill. The levy came into force on the 1st July 2009 and was set at $10 per tonne. The Minister for the Environment must review the effectiveness of the levy within two years and then at intervals of not more than three years thereafter.
50% of the levy funds are returned to the Territorial Authorities (local councils) on a per capita basis, which must be spent on waste minimisation activities. The remaining 50% (minus administration costs) is allocated to a contestable Waste Minimisation Fund managed by the Ministry for the Environment.
Australian Productivity Commission's Recommendation on Waste Levies
Governments should discontinue using landfill levies because:
- the externalities of disposal to a properly-located, engineered and managed
landfill are typically small, and the scope for applying levies without
duplicating the effect of existing regulation is very limited;
- residual disposal externalities vary significantly according to waste type,
location of disposal and type of landfill facility, and it would be impractical to
vary the levy to reflect that variability; and
- using levies to achieve selected landfill diversion targets and revenue generation to fund environmental programs will not encourage outcomes which are in the best interests of the community, and may have perverse
consequences, such as increases in illegal dumping and other forms of
evasion.
[Recommendation 9.1]
Productivity Commission 2006, Waste Management, Report no. 38, Canberra
Click here to download the Productivity Commission's report
Packaging Council Position
- The Packaging Council considers a levy to be one form of economic instrument that may be used and we consider that there should be further investigation into the use of other economic instruments to ensure that the most appropriate and effective mechanisms are selected for encouraging waste minimisation behaviour change.
- Raising revenue for waste minimisation activities solely by means of a waste levy is an inefficient way of providing funds for these activities. This has been well researched and documented by the Australian Productivity Commission’s report and the NZIER ‘Waste or Rationality’ report commissioned by Business New Zealand.
The Packaging Council has made the following recommendations regarding the waste levy:
- The Waste Advisory Board should undertake a national strategic and economic assessment of waste management to specifically identify where additional funding is required and at what level that funding needs to be to achieve the desired outcome. These areas should then be ‘ranked’ based on strategic importance to New Zealand and consideration given to the best economic model to fund these projects, be that out of established tax regimes, a the Waste Minimisation Fund or other appropriate economic instruments.
- Require local authorities who own or operate a landfill to demonstrate that their gate fees include all externalities associated with their landfill, including the long term management of the site. Increased gate fees which include the full and real cost of disposal could in itself meet any local funding shortfall.
- Any levied funds should be 100% contestable. Giving territorial authorities 50% of revenues raised as a right, will not, in our opinion, advance a national strategic plan aimed at waste minimisation or resource recovery or allow the level of funding required to be quantified.
- Waste generated from recycling should be exempt from any waste disposal levy, otherwise a levy would increase the cost of recycling and could make some recycling operations unviable. Clearly this would be contrary to the intention of the SOP.
Back to Top
|
|
