Tag Archives: Circular Economy
By Accounting for Energy– (3 min read) This month, Alupro announced that in 2018, the recycling of aluminium cans hit 75 per cent – a three per cent rise on 2017 figures. In an environment where household recycling has reached a plateau, aluminium is a success story, and one which represents value across the supply chain. As well as helping to avoid unnecessary mining of Bauxite, last year, aluminium cans averaged £1,016 per tonne. Ideally, successful recycling would always feed a genuine market and, as resources become more scarce, we are looking for new ways to make the most of our waste. One route which is being explored is the extraction of valuable resources from landfill and e-waste. A UN report released earlier this year estimates the value of e-waste at more than £47.8 billion, largely held in precious metals such as gold and platinum, which are used to make electronics. The report – A New Circular Vision for Electronics – claims that around 80 per cent of the WEEE produced worldwide ends up in landfill, or dismantled with little or no regulation, in developing countries. Processing hazardous waste without the appropriate safety controls is a danger to the health of workers, but the loss of valuable resources adds another dimension. If we are to meet our circular aims and build a resource efficient economy, we need to target those materials that can easily be applied to manufacture new products. Landfill mining is another option. While this has taken place since the 1950s, it has recently come under greater scrutiny, with the launch of a new project in Belgium which uses plasma technology to heat waste to high temperatures and transform it into renewable gas. In the UK, tapping the energy held in landfill waste to produce renewable electricity is commonplace. Of more than 500 landfill sites dotted around the UK – roughly five per county – 90 per cent produce renewable energy through landfill gas capture technology, and these sites have the potential to power every household in Northern Ireland for a year. Landfill gas equipment pays dividends, both to the company that installs and manages the technology, and to the landfill owner, which receives royalty payments for hosting the equipment on its site. As long as the payments are regularly audited to ensure that rates reflect the current set-up, landfill gas represents a beneficial way for sustainable objectives and economics to complement each other.
By Travis Benn – (4 min read)
In October, the government confirmed the rates for the next two years of Landfill Tax and also introduced a new lever in the form of a levy on single-use plastic packaging. With a number of consultations and the publication of the Waste Strategy on the horizon, it is a good time to consider the pros and cons of weight-based incentives, legislative drivers, and the rationality in calls for a more radical tack.
When it arrived in 1996, Landfill Tax was ground-breaking. In a world that recognised the value of sticks over carrots for prodding industry in the right direction, it was the UK’s first environmental tax. At the time it was widely agreed that hitting the bank balance was the most effective – possibly the only – way to motivate businesses to change. Recycling targets followed hot on the heels, with packaging targets introduced a year later and then, in 2010, the first landfill diversion target.
Each of these weight-based measures was designed to increase recycling, with little consideration given to the make-up of products or concept of reduction. It has to be said, overall they have proven successful. However, as recycling levels across the UK have fallen and public awareness of waste hits an all-time high, the role of weight-based targets has come under increasing scrutiny.
Some of the arguments against are well-worn – for example, setting metrics against previous volumes of waste can act as a disincentive to waste reduction while, as Landfill Tax tops £90 for the first time, some accuse it of propelling material towards energy from waste rather than recycling or minimisation. Others look to carbon measurements as a more realistic gauge of the impact of products than end of pipe waste issues.
However, amid the more customary views, the question of quality is increasingly raising its head. China’s National Sword programme which has, effectively, shut the door on exported materials such as plastics, prompted recyclers to take a critical look at material processed in the UK. Since then, the realisation is hitting home that, for genuine end markets, quality matters.
At this point, we are on the brink. The new Circular Economy Package is coming into effect, with producers expected to fund the full net cost for the recycling of packaging. What this means in practice is yet to be decided, but it will transform the way we view waste, and we can be certain that producers will be called on to pay more. Under the French system, products are levied at different rates depending on their recyclability or use of recycled material. Here, producers are taking steps to overhaul design and manufacture to improve recycling and eliminate unnecessary single-use packaging, and signing up to voluntary agreements such as Plastic Pact.
In five years’ time, the landscape will be very different and, hopefully, packaging and product design will be more in keeping with a circular system which removes the need for a solely weight-based system. Whether the key drivers are legislative or reputation-based remains to be seen.
For further information, please contact:
Travis Benn
Co-Founder
0203 375 6144
By Travis Benn – (3 min read)
Philip Hammond’s budget announcement last week could be described as underwhelming and non-eventful, but with the impending uncertainty of Brexit, he is clearly trying to leave himself some space to tackle whatever changes our EU departure will bring next year. There were some positives which will leave landowners with a few extra pennies in their bank, and a new tax that has been well received by waste management companies.
Tax
While there were no changes to the rate of tax, Hammond is fulfilling the Conservative manifesto to raise the personal allowance to £12,500 and the higher taxpayers’ threshold to £50,000 (currently £46,351) in April 2019, which is one year earlier than planned. This is good news for self-employed farmers as their allowance will increase by £650 which is nearly double the increase we saw at the beginning of this tax year, which we outlined here.
Landowners will also be able to deduct two per cent of the cost of any new non-residential structures and buildings off their profits before tax.
Staffing
Landowners with small farms who employ apprentices will see some relief as Hammond promises to halve the apprenticeship levy contributions for smaller businesses from 10 per cent to five per cent.
On the other hand the National Minimum Wage will increase by five per cent to £8.21 (currently £7.83), which has been described as ‘more than the sector expected’ by the NFU.
Plastic Packaging Tax
We have written about developments in plastic reform, and targets that have been set by the Circular Economy Package, and under the Plastic Pact managed by WRAP, and it seems the government is listening to the advice. Hammond says that producers of plastics will be taxed if packaging contains less than 30 per cent of recycled plastics.
This has received a mixed response in the waste management community, but overall it is seen as a step in the right direction, with the Environmental Services Association’s (ESA) Executive Director, Jacob Hayler, saying it is the ‘most effective way’ to ensure the right incentives are in place for recycling, rather than to penalise Energy from Waste.
On the waste front Hammond also committed to give £10m to dumped waste, and made a commitment to reform the Packaging Producer Responsibility.
These commitments have been made against the backdrop of ‘austerity coming to an end’, which is a step in the right direction, but it is caged in ambiguous and cautious tones. Until there is clarity on what sort of Brexit deal we will get, all of this is subject to change, and if for example we are left with a no-deal EU exit, we could be discussing the terms of a completely new budget next spring.
For further information, please contact:
Travis Benn
Co-Founder
0203 375 6144
