In 2018 the South Korean Government introduced the Resource Circulation Act that included a landfill levy (tax) in order to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill sites and to promote recycling. The objective of this study is to examine the negative and positive effects of landfill tax on national waste management by reviewing case studies from the European Union (EU). In December 2015, the European Commission proposed the Circular Economy Package that sets ambitious recycling rates of 65% and a maximum 10% landfill rate for municipal wastes by 2030, and the European Commission decided that the landfill tax could help move towards these aims. Indeed since the late 1990s, most of the countries in the European Union have introduced landfill taxes. Landfill rates of these countries showed a tendency to decrease gradually. Currently the landfill rates for the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Norway are less than 5%, and those for the UK, France and Italy have fallen below 30%. However, the landfill tax also had negative effects. In the case of the Netherlands, too little waste was sent to landfills, and private companies can no longer profit. Consequently the companies will not be able to fulfil their financial obligations for closure and aftercare. Thus, based on the results of this study, it is necessary to further consider the landfill levy in Korea.