Landfill Levy

Waste Management Board Landfill Levy Review

In September 2007 the Waste Management Board engaged a consultant to undertake a review of some aspects of the Landfill Levy. The Consultant, Dr Micheal Blyth of Four Scenes Consulting Pty Ltd, conducted destop review of relevant reports and held interview with selected stakeholders. The results of his research have formed a draft report which is available here. Comments on this paper are due by mid January 2008.

The Municipal Waste Advisory Council has developed a Submission to the report. The MWAC Submission is available here. The Submission has been provided to the Waste Management Board.

Background

In 1998 Western Australia brought in a levy on waste sent to landfill in the Metropolitan area of $3 per tonne for putrescible wastes and $1 per tonne for inert wastes.  In some other states of Australia, most notably New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia, much higher levies are charged on waste sent to landfill. 

As of 1 October 2006 the Landfill Levy increased to $6 per tonne for biodegradable waste and $3 per cubic metre for inert waste.  For more information visit the Minister for Environments Website or the Waste Management Boards Website

In addition to increasing the Levy the Minister also committed to establishing a statutory waste authority to oversee the expenditure of the additional funds raised.  The Municipal Waste Advisory Council expressed conditional support for the increase, based on the amount of the Levy being capped for the next two years and any further increases being justified by evidence of a reduction of waste to landfill.

Proposal

The Waste Management Board has proposed an extended range of schemes to disburse the funding from this increase in the Levy.  You can find out more about what the Board has proposed and download copies of their discussion papers on the subject here.  In Feb 2006, MWAC produced a Submission in response to the Board's proposal.  The Municipal Waste Advisory Council held a forum on the 27th of February for Local Government Officers and Elected Members to discuss and provide input on the MWAC Submission.  An updated version of the Submission has been generated and is available here.

Local Government Position on the Landfill Levy

Although Local Government initially opposed the Landfill Levy, in 2005, the WA Local Government Association developed a Policy Statement on the Landfill Levy and Strategic Waste Funding which set out conditional support for the Levy System as a means of raising strategic funding for waste management.  The Policy Statement is available here.