Journal Article

A landfill tax refund scheme: analysis and simulation for local governments in the UK

Abstract

Taxes on waste such as a conventional landfill tax belong to a policymaker’s standard arsenal to reduce pollution, encourage recycling and reuse of materials, and promote the circular economy.  Yet introducing or tightening such taxes typically causes political resistance from the regulated parties.  We propose a tax refund scheme that can mitigate this problem. Under the scheme waste management authorities would be required to pay a tax on landfill waste before the resulting tax revenue is rebated to them.  Waste-reducing efforts would be stimulated because the refund structure rewards authorities that outperform others in reducing landfilled waste.  Using the 2019-20 data on municipal solid waste we present a simulation of our policy proposal for the UK that can serve as a policy design blueprint for other countries.  The information requirements for the policy scheme are low, and its design and administration are simple.

Authors

Nagase, Yoko
Berger, Wolfram

Oxford Brookes departments

Oxford Brookes Business School

Dates

Year of publication: [in press]
Date of RADAR deposit: 2024-06-24

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License