Defra consults on wood waste landfill bans

Defra has issued a call for evidence asking for stakeholders' views on whether there should be a ban on wood waste sent to landfill.

As an economist I am instinctively against bans as these generally do not lead to efficient/least cost outcomes. In the case of wood waste, Defra's own analysis suggests that the net benefits of introducing a ban would be negative, i.e. the costs of introducing a ban would outweigh the benefits. Given that the amount of wood waste sent to landfill is expected to fall to only around 300,000 tonnes by circa 2020, it seems that this isn't a big issue which needs heavy handed intervention.

Landfill tax is the big driver of behaviour here and is already doing the work of diverting this material to other management routes. As more alternative infrastructure comes on stream, we will see less wood waste going to landfill, without requiring a ban, which might be costly and difficult to enforce.

There will be some who argue that the greenhouse gas emissions from landfill mean that we must ensure that this material is all kept out of landfill, but I would argue that landfill taxes already take more than full account of the environmental disbenefits of landfill (see e.g. here). We do not therefore need additional policy measures to tackle this particular problem.