It now costs an additional £40 per tonne to send most types of waste to landfill.
Landfill Site in UK
The total costs are actually much higher than £40 as most businesses will pay a company or local authority to collect their waste and will be charged for the other elements, over and above the tax. Whoever does the collection has to pay for:
- Transport to Collect the Rubbish.
- Guys to Pick up the Rubbish.
- A Plant or Depot to Process/Separate/Crush the Waste.
- Transport to the Landfill Site.
- Landfill Gate Fees.
So the real cost of waste to landfill is much higher than just the £40 tax.
But, I hear you say, most of those costs are the same for recycling so it doesn’t really matter!
Well yes, it is true that recycling carries a cost. But the development of recycling infrastructure, coupled with the inevitable increase in the cost of raw materials as we literally use them up, means that the business model for recycling services has started to look very robust.
Also, consider why the Government imposed the landfill tax in the first place. It’s not just about helping the environment but also the fact that we are running out of space for landfill sites. Current sites are reaching capacity and new landfill sites are pretty much the least popular choice, apart from Nuclear Waste Dumps, for ways to use land in the UK, particularly for those living nearby!
We all have to make a decision about our waste, and the knowledge that landfill tax is likely to rise year-on-year (by £8 a tonne until 2011 at least) might make a difference to what you decide is best for your business.
As always, if you’re looking for an alternative to landfill in Scotland please visit our Business Recycling Directory.
Waste Aware
Rachel Wignell
williamwylie
Consider the consequences and the corporate responsibility of using direct mail.
Returned, unwanted and undelivered mail is a waste of money, time and effort, which can increase opportunities for identity theft and produces vast amounts of waste paper – 80% of the carbon footprint for a piece of direct mail is in the ‘end of life’.
The ‘end of life’ solution for Direct Mail is still often neglected but with new EU directives on waste paper going to landfill and the DMA PAS2020 regulations there is now a ‘producer responsibility’ that all waste paper generated is disposed of responsibly.
Since 1996 Veridata in Chester has provided this dedicated service to customers including one of the largest credit card Companies in the world. We have reduced their undeliverable mail by 50% and the recycled of tons of paper waste.
Veridata’s dedicated service can help to lower the carbon footprint of anyone who mails out large amounts of mail, catalogues etc.
Brief PowerPoint presentation available from tim.craig@veri-data.co.uk
Can you tell me where this image was from? Which landfill in the U.K. ?
Thanks
Hi,
I’m afraid I can’t tell you which landfill this is as, even if I knew, it wouldn’t be right to name and shame them. At Keep Scotland Beautiful we are trying to promote alternatives to landfill, regardless of where they are. Landfill represents a waste of the materials that are disposed of, which could be recovered and reuse or recycled. It also uses land which is becoming scarcer. Organic waste in landfill also generates methane, which is a potent greenhouse gas.