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Brown rejects incineration tax
3 December 2004
Friends of the Earth has reacted with dismay as the Government dropped its idea for an incineration tax following two 2 years of procrastination [1]. Chancellor Gordon Brown announced in the pre-budget report on 2nd December that "the Government is not convinced that there is a strong case for the introduction of a tax on incinerated waste."
Friends of the Earth believes that taxing incineration and removing the financial incentives it currently enjoys would conserve resources and help drive UK's recycling up to the best levels in Europe. Recycling saves more energy and creates fewer greenhouse gas emissions than incineration and other thermal treatment of waste.
Incineration is deeply unpopular with local communities and a vote-loser for local councils. Since January 2001, 12 incinerator proposals have been proposed across England and Wales, but only two have been given the go-ahead [2].
Friends of the Earth has been calling on the Chancellor to:
Increase the landfill escalator to £5+ a year
Remove the perverse incentives currently in place in favour of incineration; and
Commit to including incineration in a broader tax covering all disposal, reflecting the position of incineration below recycling, reduction and reuse in the waste hierarchy.
Claire Wilton, Friends of the Earth's senior waste campaigner, said:
"A tax on incineration would make sure that waste diverted from landfill isn't simply burned instead. Large-scale incineration is the wrong system for the UK, where recycling is at long last expanding. Recycling is much better for the environment than either burying or burning waste. Unless new economic measures are introduced, there will never be a level playing field for recycling and this country will continue to languish near the bottom of the EU recycling league table."
Notes
1. An incineration tax was first proposed by the Cabinet Office Strategy Unit in its review of Government Waste Strategy in 2002 and was announced to be under consideration by the Treasury in the Budget report 2003.
2. According to Friends of the Earth's records, available on request.
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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust
Last modified: Jun 2008
