Commissioner calls for landfill bans

Via @APSRG I see that the EU's Environment Commissioner, Janez Potočnik, has apparently called for a complete ban on landfill across the EU.

As I have argued before here and here, I am instinctively against landfill bans. Such restrictions generally lead to sub-optimal outcomes as they impose blanket costs on waste producers which may in some cases outweigh the environmental benefits of restricting a particular material from going to landfill.

A complete ban on landfill would be an extremely short-sighted policy which failed to recognise that increased costs to waste producers (in excess of the environmental damages associated with the management of their wastes) would inevitably depress their ability to generate positive economic returns elsewhere.

During a time when Europe is facing a deep and ongoing economic crisis, introducing anti-growth policies seems particularly perverse.