Landfill tax will not enable the circular economy

The National Federation of Builders (NFB) has released a short report titled, ‘Going full circle: Making a circular economy work for builders’, which compares how other nations deal with waste in construction and makes eight recommendations for the UK Government to move toward and enable a circular economy.

Richard Beresford, Chief Executive of the National Federation of Builders (NFB), said: “When the Treasury consulted on the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ landfill tax proposal, it was clear that Defra had not understood the system or the scale of the challenge to viability], which would make many construction projects – particularly housing – unviable and undeliverable.

“If unviable projects were not a strong enough argument against the landfill tax, then the 60 meter, 20 foot high fly-tipping in Kidlington should reinforce the point. If the landfill tax doesn’t dissuade organised crime from dumping polluting rubbish, why would it work for organic, inert materials?”

Our report, ‘Going Full Circle’, explores why the Government cannot just tax their way to behaviour change, particularly when the lack of infrastructure in place makes behaviour change impossible.

‘Going full circle’ highlights the current approach in England, the landfill tax proposal, two main challenges and then covers the strategies on Germany and the Netherlands.

It makes eight recommendations, including:

– Creating digital records for buildings

– Rewarding recycling and reuse

– Increasing landfill capacity

– Tackling waste crime offenders

– Retaining the Disposal permit system

Rico Wojtulewicz, Head of Policy and Market Insight at the NFB, said: “If the Government is set on introducing a landfill tax, it must first understand how the waste system operates and why, as well as the removing the barriers for re-use or recycling. “If the ambition is a circular economy and not a tax grab, the Government will need to move at pace with new policies. For example, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government must fix planning to enable soil exchanges and quarry backfilling, the Environment Agency will need to fix the waste permit system, while investing in enforcement techniques, and Defra need to go back to the drawing board to identify where and how more re-use can exist.

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