In 2018, the Korean government introduced a landfill levy under the Framework Act on Resource Circulation. This was a fiscal measure to ensure that landfill waste disposal is priced so as to reflect its environmental cost and to help promote more sustainable waste management. This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of the landfill levy as a landfill policy instrument in Korea. In this study, a literature survey was conducted on the existing theoretical and empirical insights to the effectiveness of landfill taxes, including experiences in several EU countries. This survey shows that if landfill taxes are to be effective in terms of reducing the amount of waste going to landfills, the tax rate should be put at a fairly high level. It should be noted that the landfill tax rates should be set based on the external cost of landfill disposal. In addition, it appears that the landfill tax has not significantly affected generated waste per capita in the EU. The landfill tax can result in negative effects. Due to the reduction of waste sent to landfills, there is a risk that landfill operators will not be able to fulfil their financial obligations for closure and aftercare. Additionally, after closure and construction of the surface sealing, the emissions potential of the waste body remains more or less constant, resulting in the extended time-scale and uncertain funding of the post-closure period. This is a problem applicable to most landfills that contain inorganic waste. Thus, landfill operators should be stimulated by means of appropriate regulations to stabilize the waste body as much as possible to guarantee the lowest possible emission potential. This requires financial incentives, which are implemented to encourage operators to actively advance the stabilization of landfill waste.

유엔기후변화협약(UNFCC)은 온실가스 배출통계의 중요성을 강조함에 따라 모든 당사국들은 국가 온실가스 인벤토리 산정 보고서를 제출할 의무를 명시하고 있다. 국가 온실가스 인벤토리 분야에는 폐기물 분야도 포함되어 있으며, 특히 메탄배출량의 상당량을 차지하는 폐기물매립지에 대한 온실가스 배출량 산정은 매우 중요시되고 있다. 그럼에도 불구하고 국내 폐기물매립지는 아직까지 GPG(Good practice guidance) 2000에 기반하여 온실가스 배출량을 산정하고 있어 2006 IPCC 가이드라인을 기준으로 매립지 온실가스 배출량을 산정하고 있는 미국과 EU 국가 등과 비교하여 배출량 산정의 정확도가 낮은 문제점을 나타내고 있다. 이에 본 연구에서는 GPG 2000과 2006 IPCC 가이드라인(Tier 1, 2)을 기반으로 국내 폐기물매립지의 온실가스 배출량을 산정 및 비교함으로써 폐기물매립지 온실가스 배출량 산정방법의 문제점 및 개선방향을 제시하고자 하였다. 각 방법별 폐기물매립지의 국가 온실가스 배출량 산정 결과, 2015년 기준으로 2006 IPCC Tier 1의 배출량은 10,885 Gg CO2eq,로 가장 높게 나타났으며, 다음으로 2006 IPCC Tier 2(9,443 Gg CO2eq,), GPG 2000(7,727Gg CO2eq)순으로 나타났다. GPG 2000과 2006 IPCC 가이드라인 모두 FOD 모델을 기반으로 하고 있기 때문에 연도별 배출량 증감은 비슷하였으나 GPG 2000은 매립폐기물 전부를 하나의 단일 성상으로 가정한 반면 2006 IPCC에서는 폐기물 성상별로 배출계수를 적용하도록 하고 있어 배출량의 차이가 발생하였다. 다만 2006 IPCC에서는 국가 배출계수의 적용을 권고하고 있어 향후 이에 대한 지속적 개발 및 검증이 이루어져야 할 것이다.

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.

The objective of this research was to estimate the greenhouse gas (GHG) emission factors for food, paper, and wood wastes through methane (CH4) flow analysis. The GHG emissions from a given amount of landfill waste depend on the carbon (C) flows in the waste: (1) carbon storage in landfills, (2) C in carbon dioxide (CO2) and CH4 generated in anaerobic waste decomposition, (3) C in CO2 and CH4 emitted to the atmosphere through vertical gas wells, (4) C in CO2 from CH4 oxidation through cover soils, and (5) C in CH4 emitted to the atmosphere through cover soils. This study reviews the literature on the ranges for DOCf (the fraction of degradable organic carbon that can decompose) and OX (oxidation factor) values of food, paper, and wood, with a particular focus on the role of lignin. There is an inverse relationship between lignin and the DOCf of paper and wood wastes. In this respect, the lignin content could be used as an abatement indicator for the DOCf of paper and wood. The literature review shows that the average DOCf values for food, paper, and wood were 0.72, 0.61, and 0.12, respectively. The country-specific DOCf value for wood (0.44) is significantly higher than the ranges reported in the literature, which implies that the country-specific DOCf for wood can overestimate GHG emissions compared to the DOCf obtained from the literature. The estimated GHG emissions factors were 1,055 kg-CO2e/ ton-wet waste for food, 1,367 kg-CO2e/ton-wet waste for paper, and 276 kg-CO2e/ton-wet waste for wood. Sensitivity analysis results showed that the most influential parameters were MCF (CH4 correction factor), DOCf, and OX. In order to reduce GHG emissions from landfill in Korea, landfill sites currently in operation should be converted from anaerobic to semi-aerobic.