WasteMINZ Responds To Government Announcement $124m Investment, Waste Disposal Levy Expansion

Minister Sage’s announcement, 15 July 2020, on the Government’s decision to expand the waste disposal levy to all classes of landfill and the $124 million investment from the Covid-19 Response and Recovery Fund (CRRF)is great news for the waste sector, says WasteMINZ Chair Wayne Plummer. WasteMINZ was one of the many organisations who submitted on the consultation earlier this year.
 

“We look forward to further details of where the $124 million will be invested, but it is certainly a welcomed injection of funding into on-shore infrastructure, and the subsequent generation of jobs.”

“In terms of the waste disposal levy expansion, many WasteMINZ members supported the level playing field this will create, providing the timing of the increases were clearly signalled and fairly applied.”

Expanding the waste disposal levy (levy) to all types of landfill will help mitigate the risk of waste being disposed of at a site which does not have adequate environmental controls, infrastructure and testing processes, simply to avoid the payment of the levy. Robust monitoring and enforcement, as a result of these changes to the levy structure, will likely be required to ensure Illegal dumping and regional waste flight risk do not materialise.

“However, economic levers are a proven method for encouraging behaviour change and this increase should make people think twice about taking a load of waste to landfill. With the levy eventually reaching $60 per tonne, there is a real incentive for waste generators to divert materials for re-use, repurpose or recycling.”

“In particular there are significant opportunities for construction and demolition waste to be repurposed, and for organic waste to be diverted to composting and anaerobic digestion.”

The increased revenue from the levy, which is projected to generate $276m per annum by the end of 2024/25 will support the development of the waste and resource recovery sectors in New Zealand. That level of investment necessitates increased accountability and WasteMINZ is pleased to see the inclusion of improved data collection, tonnage and waste type, as a core deliverable of the levy expansion. This knowledge will support meaningful policies being implemented to minimise waste.

“WasteMINZ has long advocated for mandatory collection of waste data and in 2015 published the Waste Data Framework (funded by MfE). One third of councils are actively implementing the framework but there is a need for national waste data not only from the remaining councils but from the private sector”.

WasteMINZ congratulates the Ministry for the Environment for tackling this significant piece of work and for leading the first increase to the levy since its inception in 2008.

It is an exciting announcement and timely investment and WasteMINZ looks forward to supporting the Ministry with their initiatives.

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