What's the problem with New Zealand's landfill levy?

With hundreds of thousands of tonnes of re-usable and recyclable materials going to landfill each year in New Zealand, a new report by Eunomia has proposed raising the country’s landfill levy from the current $10 per tonne to as high as $140 per tonne.

Waste disposal is currently extremely cheap in New Zealand, covering everything from electronic waste to plastic film, beverage containers and construction waste. Raising the levy would mean that re-using and recycling these waste products and materials would become the cheaper option. It would also help foster design innovation by manufacturers (to avoid the costs of disposal), according to the report, as well as raise revenue to help support new recycling processes and businesses that at present can’t compete with the cheap cost of landfill.

“Currently, anyone can sell unrecyclable, unrepairable, short life-span products, with no thought of the cost of disposal,” said Sandra Murray, coordinator for the New Zealand Product Stewardship Council (NZPSC). “Ratepayers and councils have had enough.”

Murray noted that an increased levy would need to be matched with proper product stewardship, in order to ensure producers take responsibility for the whole life cycle of their products. She said the NZ government has so far refused to use the Waste Minimisation Act to reduce rubbish and reduce the costs to the public, with over $70m of landfill levy money spent on projects and schemes which have had little, if any, impact.

“The piecemeal and ineffective allocation of the landfill levy contestable fund has failed to support the recycling market, failed to create a level playing field for businesses and failed to address the key waste problems like packaging, tyres, e-waste and agricultural chemicals,” said Murray.

“While the Product Stewardship Council supports an increased levy, we are concerned at the ineffective way levy funds are currently being spent. With an increased levy, there is an even greater risk that the fund will be used for political purposes rather than effective waste minimisation. Therefore we call for the contestable levy fund to be overseen by an independent committee — such as the existing Waste Advisory Board — not a politician.”

The most important functions of an increased landfill levy, according to the council, will be to enable re-use and recycling to be cheaper than landfill and to encourage design innovation to avoid waste being created in the first place.