Waste in the Emissions Trading Scheme

How is the waste sector affected by the ETS?

Those who operate landfills will have obligations to report their emissions and surrender New Zealand Units (NZUs) under the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). They won’t receive an allocation of NZUs.

Like all New Zealanders, they’re likely to notice a small increase in energy prices due to the ETS. For more information on these effects and how to reduce your energy costs, please see What does the ETS mean for me?

Obligations

Operators of landfills whose waste stream contains some element of household waste will have obligations under the ETS. Landfill operators will have obligations for the methane emitted through the biodegradation of organic waste.

Emissions from wastewater treatment are not included in the scheme.

Waste incinerators who generate electricity or industrial heat from the combustion process are part of the energy sector.

New regulations

Cabinet made policy decisions in September 2010 for the final set of NZ Emissions Trading Scheme waste sector regulations.

The regulations can be found at the NZ Legislation website:

Cabinet’s decisions follow consultation that took place in June–August 2010.

Read the Cabinet decision:

Emissions Trading Scheme: Regulations for Solid Waste Disposal Facilities

Read the Regulatory Impact Statement (NZ Treasury website).

Key dates

From 1 January 2011: Landfill operators can register as participants if they intend to report their emissions voluntarily for 2011.

From 1 January 2012: They will be required to collect necessary data in order to calculate and report their greenhouse gas emissions over the calendar year by 31 March 2013.

From 1 January 2013: They will have obligations to collect data in order to calculate and report their greenhouse gas emissions over the calendar year by 31 March 2013 and surrender sufficient emission units by 31 May 2014.

Allocations

The waste sector won’t receive an allocation of NZUs because they’ll be able to pass the costs of their ETS obligations on to their customers.

Guidance

A guide to landfill methane in the NZ ETS is available here. Regulations for reporting landfill methane emissions under the NZ ETS came into force from 1 January 2011. Voluntary reporting also starts from that date.

A guide is available to help waste disposal facility (ie, landfill) operators as well as territorial local authorities and contractors meet the mandatory reporting and surrender obligations that these regulations will eventually place on them.

Last updated: 2 December 2011