The Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme and the Landfill Tax

Type de pratique Landfill

Nom de la pratique The Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme and the Landfill Tax

Nom de l’acteur principal British Government

Type d’acteur(s) Autorités publiques

Pays United Kingdom

Etape de mise en œuvre Fin de vie

Année de mise en œuvre 2003

Opérations déjà accomplies/en cours In order to facilitate compliance with the EU Landfill Directive targets and provisions, the British government adopted the Waste and Emission Trading Act in 2003, which established a cap-and-trade scheme. It imposed obligations on local authorities for the limitation of the total amount of bio-municipal waste to be landfilled, somewhat mirroring the one created for CO2 emissions under the Emission Trading Scheme (ETS). The scheme would allocate a certain number of allowances (each one corresponding to 1 tonne of bio-municipal waste) to each local authority. The allowances would gradually decrease year-on-year for the duration of the scheme, which is set to last through 2020. Like the ETS, also under the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme (LATS), local authorities are allowed to trade their allowances, bank them for future use, or borrow up to 5 percent from their own future allowances. Since 2010, the price for each extra allowance has been set at US$233.

Résultats et impacts Following the 2011 Government Waste Review, the British government announced that LATS would be withdrawn after the 2012/2013 scheme year in England, as it is no longer considered to have any significant effect on landfill diversion. LATS is a unique and very attractive model for governments committed to gradually decreasing the amount of biodegradable waste that ends-up in landfills. In fact, creating a waste market and establishing a waste price may well work as an effective deterrent, constituting a real financial burden for both businesses and local governments with undue costs for waste treatment. In other countries, however, many landfill allowances have looked at incinerators as the easiest way to meet LATS obligations, so that the fundamental issue of shifting investments on alternative and more sustainable waste management options remains open. In England as in the rest of the UK, the key deterrent for landfilling diversion is the landfill tax, which is increasing towards US$124 per tonne in 2014/2015.