Implications of LATS and Escalating Landfill Tax for Waste Management

Under the LATS system, waste disposal authorities and unitary authorities can send fixed amount of biodegradable municipal waste (BMW) to landfill and have to pay landfill tax of £48 for per tonne of waste they send to landfill. This research sought to explore the impacts of both LATS and escalating landfill tax on the waste management practices and policies of local authorities and tried to understand the differences among these effects. As a multiple case study research it investigated various issues faced by four local authorities of South Yorkshire namely Sheffield, Barnsley, Doncaster, and Rotherham and also their observation regarding LATS and landfill tax. The research concluded that both policy instruments brought significant changes in municipal waste management by reducing the authorities'' reliance on landfills. The impacts on Sheffield differ from other three councils due to Sheffield''s existing capacity of incineration. However, more policy interventions are required to move towards more sustainable waste management as LATS and tax force the authorities to move away from landfilling but do not force them to move further up the waste hierarchy.