{"id":7101,"date":"2021-12-15T10:06:25","date_gmt":"2021-12-15T10:06:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ieabioenergy.com\/newtask36\/?p=7101"},"modified":"2021-12-15T10:06:25","modified_gmt":"2021-12-15T10:06:25","slug":"msw-incineration-fee-in-norway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/task36.ieabioenergy.com\/news\/msw-incineration-fee-in-norway\/","title":{"rendered":"MSW incineration fee in Norway"},"content":{"rendered":"

How to stimulate waste prevention and promote material recovery? Can a combustion fee be part of the solution?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Municipal\u00a0solid\u00a0waste (MSW) incineration (Waste-to-Energy,\u00a0WtE) is excluded from the European Emissions Trading System (EU ETS). Some authorities, including Norway’s, have been considering the introduction of a specific combustion fee on\u00a0WtE. In such a scheme,\u00a0WtE\u00a0plants will have to purchase CO2\u00a0<\/sub>equivalent emission credits for each tonne of fossil CO2<\/sub> emitted when processing MSW. The main rationale is that the increased cost of incineration will act as an incentive to reduce waste production and to promote sorting and material recycling of fossil-based waste fractions, mainly plastic (and textiles). These trends could contribute both to climate change mitigation and EU material recovery targets \u2013 6 5% by 2035 for MSW. The current MSW treatment situation in the EU is summarised in the picture below and shows that countries with high material recycling are most often countries with high\u00a0WtE.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Municipal waste treatment in 2019 (from CEWEP, Eurostat data).<\/p><\/div>\n

The actual effects of such a fee are difficult to predict. This is specifically true concerning waste reduction and households. Households will not be affected directly by the fee, as they do not usually have to pay for waste handling per\u00a0kilogram,\u00a0but they pay a fixed fee, often to their municipality, for waste treatment. Sweden implemented a waste incineration fee in April 2020 and evaluated its\u00a0effects in January 2021. In short, the short-term effect on material recycling is limited and the long-term effects are uncertain.\u00a0More\u00a0details\u00a0can\u00a0be\u00a0found\u00a0in\u00a0Utv\u00e4rdering av avfallsf\u00f6rbr\u00e4nningsskatten<\/em>,\u00a08-861014, 2021, Skatteverket (in Swedish).<\/p>\n

A real possibility in Norway is that MSW fractions will be exported to countries where\u00a0WtE\u00a0cheaper (mainly to\u00a0neighbouring\u00a0Sweden).\u00a0WtE\u00a0actors also argue that they have little influence on the amount and nature of the waste they are processing and that they act as the ultimate solution and sink for contaminated, mixed, residual fractions that cannot be treated otherwise for one reason or another (in accordance with the EU waste hierarchy).<\/p>\n

Many in the\u00a0the\u00a0WtE\u00a0sector, with the support of some political parties, have suggested that the economic burden of a fee should be moved higher up in the value chain to have a stronger impact on waste generation and material recycling,\u00a0i.e.\u00a0towards the producers of fossil-carbon products.\u00a0A\u00a0strengthening\u00a0of the producer responsibility requirements may be more efficient than a combustion fee. Also, such a solution may very well be more in line with the polluter pays principle.<\/p>\n

In Norway, the fee was proposed before being removed in 2021. It is again part of the 2022 state budget under the new Norwegian\u00a0Government\u00a0elected in September 2021. The proposed level is 192 NOK (ca. 19 \u20ac) per ton fossil CO2<\/sub>. Its effect on waste treatment in Norway will be interesting to follow.<\/p>\n

Read\u00a0more:<\/p>\n

Utv\u00e4rdering av avfallsf\u00f6rbr\u00e4nningsskatten<\/em>,\u00a08-861014, 2021, Skatteverket (in Swedish).\u00a0https:\/\/skatteverket.se\/download\/18.96cca41179bad4b1aa991d\/1633068526576\/Utv%C3%A4rdering%20av%20avfallsf%C3%B6rbr%C3%A4nningsskatten.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

Waste incineration under the EU ETS<\/em>, 2021, CE Delft.\u00a0https:\/\/zerowasteeurope.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/ZWE_Delft_Oct21_Waste_Incineration_EUETS_Study.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

The Norwegian\u00a0Government\u00a0website, in Norwegian, 2021.\u00a0Endringer<\/em>\u00a0i\u00a0<\/em>klimaavgiftene<\/em>\u00a0https:\/\/www.regjeringen.no\/no\/statsbudsjett\/2022\/tilleggsnummer\/tilleggsnummer-til-statsbudsjettet-2022-skatter-og-avgifter\/tilleggsnummer-til-statsbudsjettet-2022-endringer-i-klimaavgiftene\/id2884934\/<\/a><\/p>\n

The Norwegian Waste Branch Association, 2021,\u00a0https:\/\/avfallnorge.no\/bransjen\/nyheter\/forbrenningsavgift-karbonfangst-eller-ravareavgift<\/a>\u00a0(In Norwegian)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How to stimulate waste prevention and promote material recovery? Can a combustion fee be part of the solution? Municipal\u00a0solid\u00a0waste (MSW) incineration (Waste-to-Energy,\u00a0WtE) is excluded from the European Emissions Trading System (EU ETS). Some authorities, including Norway’s, have been considering the introduction of a specific combustion fee on\u00a0WtE. In such a scheme,\u00a0WtE\u00a0plants will have to purchase […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":244,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/task36.ieabioenergy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7101"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/task36.ieabioenergy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/task36.ieabioenergy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/task36.ieabioenergy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/244"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/task36.ieabioenergy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7101"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/task36.ieabioenergy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7105,"href":"https:\/\/task36.ieabioenergy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7101\/revisions\/7105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/task36.ieabioenergy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/task36.ieabioenergy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/task36.ieabioenergy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}