Effekter af den forhøjede affaldsafgift

English Summary

1997-1998

In 1997 a substantial increase of the national waste tax was introduced. The present report draws a balance over the developments in taxable waste for the years 1997 and 1998 on basis of data over in- and outweighed waste from the regional tax- and customs administration. Since additional types of waste became subject to the tax in 1997 and 1998 the overall amount of waste subject to the tax has increased with 7 per cent. However, for the municipal waste treatment sites (landfills and incinerators) there was from 1996 to 1998 a reduction of minimum 0.5 per cent in net taxable waste. In the same two years the growth in production and consumption was 7 per cent, so the stagnation expresses an actual decoupling of taxable waste and economic growth. In addition, it is the first time for several years, that waste from business and industry does not increase, but shows a reduction of 2 per cent from 1996-97.

The marked differentiation of the tax, which favours incineration over landfilling, has made it possible to reduce costs by shifting from landfill to incineration, which seems to have been a popular alternative to the increase of recycling. The modest decrease in taxable waste to municipal sites is equally divided among households and business waste, just as the shift from landfilling to incineration is similar in the two sectors. However, the landfilling share is with 58 per cent still rather high within business and industry, while for collected household waste etc. it is only 6 per cent.

On basis of ’green accounting systems’ and interviews a more detailed analysis of waste management data of 11 companies with about 30 production units has been carried out. The analysed companies are generally larger and more professional than the average with regard to environmental aspects, but apart from a single atypical company there is no decisive difference between the development in taxable waste of these companies and the national average.

There are considerable differences between the recycling rates, which are high (up to 90 per cent) for traditional ’chimney-industries’ such as iron and metal, shipyards, breweries etc., while they are low (down to 5 per cent) for plast industry and pharmaceuticals. The decisive parameter for improvements in the recycling rate seems to be the economic performance of the company. Businesses with growth in turnover have in most cases improved their recycling rates, while companies experiencing a decline in turnover as a paradox do not improve their waste management performance.