Government says it will investigate the creation of a landfill tax to ensure that there is an economic drive for reuse, recovery, and recycling.

This is one of the commitments set out in a 10-year waste strategy to be debated at this month’s Tynwald sitting.

The Department of Infrastructure says it will consider where waste can be re-used, recycled or recovered and how this could be ‘encouraged’ by the introduction of a landfill tax to ‘ensure waste producers are financially incentivised’.

Higher disposal fees on waste that could be recovered or recycled will be imposed.

There is no mention in the document on the issue of fly-tipping and whether this could be exacerbated by a higher fees and a new landfill tax.

Other proposals outlined in the strategy document include the development of new landfill and recovery storage and processing facilities at Turkeylands Quarry, and the closure and restoration of the landfill site at Wrights Pit North.

It is also proposed that bottom ash from the Energy from Waste (EfW) plant will be processed for reuse in construction projects.

In a foreword to the document, Environment Minister Clare Barber and Infrastructure Minister Michelle Haywood say: ‘This strategy plans to deliver practical solutions that minimise waste, improve recycling, and encourage behavioural change.’

In 2024, 20% of the island’s waste - 49,528 tonnes - was classified as household waste.

Of this, 78% was sent to the EfW plant, 19% was recycled and 3% of the waste was sent to landfill.

Last year the EfW produced 10% of the island’s electrical energy supply through energy recovery of residual waste, equating to 50,000 tonnes of waste diverted from landfill.

The strategy document confirms that the the government will operate the primary incinerator at the EfW until at least 2039.

It notes that the strategically important facility has been under-utilised.

And it says government will take steps to ensure that the facility is maximised to produce as much green energy as possible by ensuring appropriate waste streams are directed there, and by using sustainable biomass from the island’s plantations.

The strategy, which covers the 10 years to 2035, says the DoI will look at introducing set service levels for household waste collection, with possible new powers to intervene if service levels or standards are not met.

Service levels for civic amenity sites will also be introduced.

The DoI says it supports the use of kerbside recycling by local authorities and acknowledges there are areas not suited for collections.

It says it will carry out a review of appropriate items to be collected at the kerbside, which will be used to inform service levels and performance standards.

The DoI owns two landfill sites - Wrights Pit North, which accepts asbestos, plasterboard and contaminated soil, and Turkeylands, which handles inert construction and demolition waste and bottom ash from the Incinerator.

But both will be full within the next five years.

Government says it will construct a new landfill facility at Turkeylands.

It is ‘critically important’ that landfill is only used where there’s no other option, say the document.