Other Resources

Landfill Allowance Position Statement

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EU Landfill Directive

The European Union (EU) Landfill Directive was created to reduce the amount of Biodegradable Municipal Waste (BMW) disposed of to landfill by Waste Disposal Authorities (WDA's).

The directive contains three target years:

By 2009/10 to reduce BMW disposed to landfill to 75% of that produced in 2001
By 2012/13 to reduce BMW disposed to landfill to 50% of that produced in 2001
By 2019/20 to reduce BMW disposed to landfill to 35% of that produced in 2001

Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme

Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme (LATS) has been created which sets national targets to reduce the amount of biodegradable municipal waste (waste that will rot down, such as paper, cardboard, textiles, wood, food and garden waste. This waste produces greenhouse gases and toxic liquids when rotting in landfill) sent to landfill in the UK.

Each authority will be allocated, free of charge, a set number of tradable landfill allowances (based on the amount of BMW disposed of to landfill in 1995, and revised in 2001) for each year between 1^st April 2005 and 31^st March 2020. A single landfill allowance permits an authority to landfill one tonne of BMW and this allocation has been segregated to England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales for each of the above target years.

For example, if a WDA was tipping 1000 tonnes in 2001 then 68% of this i.e. 680 tonnes would be its start allowance. In 2005 the WDA would have permits to allow it to tip 10% less, so it would be able to tip 612 tonnes.

The Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme: Position Statement is a document to address the impact of this legislation upon the authority and suggestions as to how these can be overcome.

Under LATS, councils can buy or sell allowances with each other, depending on their own needs. They can also "bank" their own allowances for use in future years, or "borrow" a limited number of future allocations of allowances for use in an earlier year.

The Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme: Trading Policy is a document to guide the authority on when and by how much the authority will trade, bank or borrow the allowances. It does not stipulate the price or time that any transactions will occur.