{"id":906401,"date":"2026-04-20T08:04:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T08:04:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/906401\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T08:04:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T08:04:18","slug":"new-report-finds-including-incineration-in-the-eu-ets-will-not-drive-more-landfilling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/906401\/","title":{"rendered":"New report finds including incineration in the EU ETS will \u2018not drive more landfilling\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-62764 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/iStock-175409767.jpg\" alt=\"EU\" width=\"860\" height=\"516\"  \/><br \/>\nIncluding waste incineration in the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) is \u2018unlikely\u2019 to lead to an increase in landfilling, according to a new report from Zero Waste Europe.<\/p>\n<p>The environmental network Zero Waste Europe (ZWE) found that concerns about waste being sent to landfill instead of incineration due to higher costs are \u2018largely unfounded\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>The report, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/zerowasteeurope.eu\/library\/incineration-eu-ets-landfilling\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Including incineration in the EU ETS: Assessing potential impacts on landfilling<\/a>\u201d, says that existing EU policies, national regulations, and market structures would limit landfill use and support better waste management outcomes.<\/p>\n<p>Specifically, the report cited regulatory restrictions, landfill bans, and long-term contracts as reasons why waste systems cannot easily switch from incineration to landfill.<\/p>\n<p>Landfill taxes and mandatory pre-treatment requirements often make landfilling more expensive than incineration, even with added carbon costs.<\/p>\n<p>The report also says that because landfill use is already tightly regulated \u2013 in EU Member States, Belgium, Germany and Sweden, less than 5% of municipal waste is landfilled \u2013 this leaves very little room for diversion.<\/p>\n<p>However, it found there were a \u2018small number of countries\u2019 with low landfill costs and weaker enforcement that may face risks of an increase in landfilling.<\/p>\n<p>The report, written by Equanimator Ltd, found that waste management decisions are often shaped more by infrastructure, legal frameworks, and contractual obligations, rather than short-term price changes.<\/p>\n<p>Commenting on the report, Janek Vahk, Zero Pollution Policy Manager at Zero Waste Europe, said:\u00a0\u201cPrice signals alone do not determine waste flows in Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe combination of landfill restrictions, taxes, and policy obligations means that a shift to landfill is not only expensive, but heavily restricted by Europe\u2019s policy framework.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0 Including waste incineration in the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) is \u2018unlikely\u2019 to lead to an&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":906402,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[76069,2000,299,5187,76068,254901],"class_list":{"0":"post-906401","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-energy-from-waste","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-european","12":"tag-landfill","13":"tag-waste-incineration"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116436001159880103","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/906401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=906401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/906401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/906402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=906401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=906401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=906401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}