Development of fees for placing waste on landfill and their influence on the management of municipal waste

Abstract

The dynamic development of fees for using the environment in Poland took place after 1989, that is from the moment of implementation of systemic transformation. Then, among others, waste disposal fees equivalent to the current charges for placing waste in a landfi ll were introduced. Rates of these fees related to some types of waste, including municipal waste, increased in selected years not proportionally to the inflation rate – in contrast to other fees for the use of the environment. This was the case, for example, between 2008 and 2009, when the rate for unsorted municipal waste increased from PLN 15.71 to PLN 75 per Mg. In 2018 this rate was raised by about PLN 20 in relation to the previous year. The aim of the article is to answer the question whether and how much a radical increase in rates for placing waste in a landfi ll had an impact on the management of municipal waste
in the context of limiting their mass deposited in landfi lls. The article will conduct a comparative analysis between the development of fees and the volume of municipal waste sent to landfi lls within a representative period. The conducted analysis denied, in principle, the thesis that very high fees for waste in the years immediately after their introduction will cause a signifi cant reduction of their flow to the landfi ll.