Government

LARAC raises concerns about cost to councils of including incineration in ETS

Local authority representative seeks to mitigate financial impact of including waste emissions in trading scheme from 2028, arguing councils have limited control over how much residual waste the public produces

Aerial shot of Energy-from-Waste in CardiffThe Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee (LARAC) has proposed measures to protect UK local authorities from the financial burden of the expanded Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) in its response to the government consultation.

The inclusion of waste incineration and Energy from Waste (EfW) facilities in the UK ETS is part of the government's broader strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and drive investment in low-carbon waste treatment technologies.

According to the recent government consultation, emissions from EfW facilities reached approximately 7.0 MtCO2 in 2021, accounting for about 1.4 per cent of the UK's total greenhouse gas emissions that year.

While broadly supporting the inclusion of the waste sector within the ETS, LARAC says there is a need to manage the challenges it poses, to ensure optimal outcomes and prevent the scheme from becoming an unavoidable expense for local authorities.

Balancing responsibility and control

LARAC's response highlights a key tension in the proposed ETS expansion: while the scheme aims to incentivise emissions reduction, local authorities have limited control over the amount and composition of waste produced by households.

Cathy Cook, LARAC Chair, commented: "Including the waste sector in the ETS is a step in the right direction for decarbonisation. However, it is crucial that the financial burden does not directly or otherwise fall onto local authorities who are already under significant financial pressures and have limited mitigation opportunities."

The trade association points out that local authorities have a statutory duty to collect household waste but possess limited powers to enforce correct householder behaviour with regard to waste and recycling. LARAC states that the situation is further complicated by additional burdens, such as the requirement for high-temperature incineration of waste containing persistent organic pollutants (POPs).

Producer responsibility and funding

To address these challenges, LARAC proposes several measures:

1. Packaging extended producer responsibility (EPR) covers relevant costs. As producers are the primary influencers on the recyclability and carbon emissions of packaging at its end of life, they should bear the increased incineration costs.

2. New burdens funding: Local authorities should receive additional funding to cover increased waste management costs resulting from the ETS expansion.

3. Expansion of EPR: Expansion of full life cycle costs to cover non-packaging items, such as textiles and absorbent hygiene products, to ensure these sectors contribute to the management of their products at end-of-life.

4. Reinvestment of ETS funds: LARAC proposes that funds generated through the inclusion of the waste sector in ETS be reinvested in decarbonisation projects, similar to the approach taken in Germany.

Aligning with wider reforms

LARAC emphasises the importance of aligning the ETS expansion with other ongoing waste management reforms and calls for implementation of collection and packaging reforms (CPR) to be aligned with the proposed ETS expansion.

It says that policies such as Simpler Recycling and its equivalents in devolved nations will help capture more materials, particularly plastics and food waste, in recycling and recovery streams, diverting them from incineration.

The UK Government consultation on inclusion of waste incineration in the Emissions Trading Scheme closes on 2 August.
 

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