Vic landfill levy hike
Wednesday, 24 March 2010
Landfill levies in metropolitan Victoria will jump from $7/tonne to $30/tonne on July 1 this year, and hit $53.50/tonne in 2014/15. The government has committed to “minimising the impact on households” and will invest the $53.7 million raised by the levy over the next five years “to help businesses, councils, households and communities address waste and its environmental impacts and assist in the transition to the higher levy rates”.
Environment Minister Gavin Jennings said the $53.7 million funding raised from the increased levies could help increase resource efficiency and recycling by up to 33%.
“Victoria already recycles six million tonnes of waste each year but with an increase in the landfill levy, Environment Protection Authority modelling indicates an extra 1.2 million tonnes per year by the 2014-15 financial year will be diverted away from landfill,” he said.
“Access Economics research prepared for the National Waste Policy found that every 10,000 tonnes of material recycled supports more than nine jobs compared with less than three jobs supported by the same amount of material going to landfill. This means the creation of around 700 jobs over the next five years.
“For a long time the cost of sending valuable materials to landfill has been too low. Increasing the levy paid on each tonne of waste helps provide an incentive to avoid landfill and stimulate the development of recycling businesses, new technologies and jobs.
