Frequently asked questions: Waste

Disposal facility operators are mandatory participants in the NZ Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). They:

• can voluntarily collect data from January 2011 and calculate and report their emissions  by 31 March 2012
• are required to collect data from January 2012 and calculate and report their emissions  by 31 March 2013, and
• are required to collect data from January 2013 and calculate and report their emissions  by 31 March 2014 as well as surrender New Zealand Units (NZUs) for their emissions by 31 May 2014.

The Climate Change Response Act 2002 defines disposal facilities in the following way:

Disposal facility means any facility including a landfill that operates (at least in part) as a business to dispose of waste, at which:

•  waste is disposed, and
• the waste disposed includes waste from a household that is not entirely from construction, renovation, or demolition of a house.

A facility (or any part of a facility) at which waste is combusted for the purpose of generating electricity or industrial heat is not considered a disposal facility.

This definition is similar to the Waste Minimisation Act 2008. Effectively, if a landfill operator is currently subject to the waste disposal levy, then they will also be a mandatory participant in the ETS. Operators of other types of disposal facilities may also be participants.

Under the ETS waste regulations, disposal facility operators are responsible only for methane emissions from their facilities.  They are not responsible for any other greenhouse gas emissions associated with landfills or other methods of waste disposal.

New Zealand’s liability for emissions from the disposal of waste under the Kyoto Protocol does not include carbon dioxide from waste decomposition, as this is assumed to be reabsorbed by the growth of organic matter in the carbon cycle.

The methodology in the regulations does not require disposal facility operators to estimate emissions from historical waste. They are only required to calculate potential emissions from the waste disposed in a particular year.

No.  Disposal facilities are sources of emissions. They are not trade exposed and can pass on any increased costs arising from the ETS to their customers.

However, some landfills are participants in the Projects to Reduce Emissions scheme that ran in 2003 and 2004. Those landfills have agreements with the Crown to deliver emission reductions beyond business as usual in return for another type of emission unit. The PRE scheme is not open for new applications.

Not unless they meet the definition of a “disposal facility” in the Climate Change Response Act 2002.

At this stage, there is no policy intention to extend ETS coverage to emissions from cleanfills.

No exemptions or threshold are in place for disposal facility participants.

The government is currently considering the recommendations of the 2011 ETS Review Panel, which included exempting landfill operators who meet certain criteria. Decisions on this recommendation will be made in 2013.

The waste disposal levy was reviewed in July 2011.

Further detail about the waste disposal levy

The ETS will favour landfill operators who can find ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through developing or applying new technology or managing organic waste, such as using landfill gas to produce electricity and diverting food and garden waste from landfills.

The the New Zealand Waste Strategy and the national waste levy will lead to reduced methane emissions from landfills. The Ministry for the Environment can provide the Waste Minimisation Act (New Zealand legislation website), and will be engaging with the landfill sector as they implement the emissions trading scheme regulations.