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The Government’s proposed increase to the waste levy are designed to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill, but metal recyclers, including Alexander Scrap Metals of Silverdale, say it could in fact lead to more dumping of items such as whiteware and car bodies.
The levy is charged for all waste sent to landfill. Disposal facility operators pay it based on the weight of material disposed of at their facility. However, they may pass this cost on to the waste producers such as households and businesses.
Government is proposing to increase the levy in stages from its current $10 per tonne, which it says is low by international standards, to $50 or $60 per tonne by 2023.
Strong calls to increase the levy came from local government, including Auckland Council.
The document outlining the proposals says that increasing the levy “will better reflect the full environmental, social and economic costs of waste disposal and encourage materials to be reused and recycled rather than sent to landfill”.
However, scrap metal recycling businesses have been quick to object, pointing out the negative impact that the increases could have on their bottom lines, as well as on the environment.
The NZ Association of Metal Recyclers has been in discussions with Environment Associate Minister Eugenie Sage regarding the issue.
Co-owner of Alexander Scrap Metals, Hugh Milliken, says the industry hopes for an exemption to any increase in the waste levy for what it calls “floc” – the materials within items such as car bodies and whiteware that cannot be recycled, such as plastics, upholstery, insulation foam and rubber.
Hugh says metals for recycling are put through a shredder based in Onehunga, which extracts the metals. The resulting waste, or ‘floc’ has to be landfilled and the charges for ‘floc’, which is passed onto the metal recycling companies, have also recently gone up, from $3.75 per tonne to $18.70 per tonne.
Hugh says if the Government’s proposed increases come into force, these charges will increase again, significantly.
“We are keeping tonnes of waste out of landfill and we think that should be reflected in what we are charged for the floc that does have to be dumped,” he says.
Regardless of the impact of these costs, Hugh says his biggest concern is a likely increase in dumping.
“If the levy goes up, we will have to start charging people to take things such as whiteware for recycling, which at the moment is free of charge,” he says. “When this happens, people can resort to dumping. I am worried that dumping could increase massively and when it does, as well as the effect on the environment, often it’s the Council that has to clean it up, with ratepayers footing the bill.”
The Government is currently summarising the submissions it received to its proposals. Final policy decisions are to be made by the middle of this year, with any new charges taking effect after that.
