Waste boss eyes levy lift

The new head of the Waste Authority has vowed to push for a landfill levy increase and see all proceeds put back into improving waste avoidance and recycling.

Marcus Geisler has taken over as chairman of the authority following Peter Fitzpatrick’s one-year tenure.

Mr Geisler has been a member of the authority since its inception in 2008 and was behind the push to increase the levy in 2010 when it rose 300 per cent from $3 to $12 a tonne for inert landfill.

Mr Geisler said the increase, while not implemented well, had the desired effect of decreasing the amount of waste being sent to landfill. 

But charging $12 a tonne was still not enough of a deterrent.

“All stakeholders understand that if we want to achieve our strategy and our targets, the levy will have to go up – they would all support an increase if they were given appropriate warning,” he said.

But he was adamant the allocation of 75 per cent of the levy increase proceeds to Treasury – as arranged under the 2010 increase – should not be repeated.

“What the government did at the time was they kept the whole increase and that was a missed opportunity in my view,” Mr Geisler said.

“In a perfect world you should use this money to pump back into the recycling industry and in improving waste avoidance and recovery.”

Advising the government on whether to increase the landfill levy fell to the authority but the two have been at odds in the past.

While the authority continued to advocate increases, environment minister Bill Marmion has previously said the government had no plans for an increase, despite ambitious recycling targets.

Western Australia’s landfill levy is among the lowest in the country and Mr Geisler said other countries, such as his homeland The Netherlands, had levies in the range of $200 per tonne.