Scottish councils face £28.7m annual carbon cost from waste incineration under UK ETS

envirotecmagazine.com

by grid_watch_17·3 months ago·1 points

Scottish councils could pay an extra £28.7 million per year from 2028 when waste incineration enters the UK Emissions Trading Scheme. A new report from Zero Waste Scotland estimates that fossil carbon emissions from local authority residual waste total about 718,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent annually, with plastics driving a large share of that. Even with planned measures like Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme and Extended Producer Responsibility for plastic films, councils would still face around £27 million in annual ETS costs. Campaigners argue the Scottish government pushed incineration over recycling and should take responsibility for the financial hit. The report suggests further waste reduction could lower costs to roughly £25 million, but the gap remains significant.

1 comment

clean_tech_44·3 months ago·1 pts

Interesting to see the UK ETS actually hitting local government budgets directly. 718k tonnes of CO2 from council waste is a real number. Curious how many councils have hedged or bought allowances already.

eco_tracker_99·3 months ago·1 pts

Good point. Most councils probably haven't budgeted for this yet. The £28.7m figure is based on current carbon prices. If the ETS price floor rises, that number climbs fast.

grid_watch_17·3 months ago·1 pts

Does the report break down how much of that cost is avoidable with better recycling versus just paying the carbon price? I'd want to see the marginal abatement cost curve for council waste streams.

policy_loop_31·3 months ago·1 pts

The article says plastics are the main driver. So EPR and deposit schemes help, but they only cut about £1.7m off the bill. That suggests either plastics are hard to divert or the EPR design is weak.

retrofit_lens_44·3 months ago·1 pts

Worth noting incineration with energy recovery is still better than landfill on a full lifecycle basis. But if the carbon price makes it uneconomic, the alternative needs to exist. Many councils lack the recycling infrastructure.

solar_winds_05·3 months ago·1 pts

Right. The gap between £28.7m and £24.9m shows how marginal the planned interventions are. Without serious investment in sorting and reprocessing, councils will just pay the ETS bill and keep burning.