Digital Waste Tracking: business regulatory impact assessment

10. Non-monetised benefits (Options 2 and 3)

168. Some benefits associated with Digital Waste Tracking are difficult to monetise because they arise from improvements in information, transparency and regulatory capability, rather than from direct behavioural changes that can be confidently quantified. However, this does not detract from the value of these benefits, and they should be considered alongside those that we have been able to monetise.

169. Enabling benefits such as more accurate and timely data, improved regulatory targeting, better evidence for policy development, strengthened compliance monitoring and reduced operational inefficiencies, all depend heavily on how government, regulators and business choose to use the improved data and technological capability. The scale and timing of these impacts attributed to DWT are uncertain and cannot be quantified accurately.

170. Additionally, some other benefits relate to avoided harms (e.g. avoided environmental damage, avoided regulatory failure), which are inherently challenging to forecast without strong empirical evidence. As a result, these impacts are captured qualitatively as unmonetisable enabling benefits rather than quantified estimates.

171. The benefits outlined below are relevant to both Option 2 and Option 3. However, the magnitude of each benefit is expected to be significantly greater under Option 3.

172. The main non-monetised benefits are:

• DWT as a foundational data and technology enabler. DWT provides enabling benefits arising from improved data and technology capabilities that are currently not possible under fragmented, paper-based or inconsistent data systems. This includes greater data coverage, better quality and more timely data, digital integration and scalability, improvements to regulation and compliance, and improved insights for policy development.
• A safer, cleaner environment through reduced greenhouse gas emissions. By providing better data on the volume, composition and destination of waste, opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions could be more easily identified. Such opportunities could include diverting waste from landfill or incineration and/or reducing energy-intensive resource extraction.
• Increased gate fee revenue. A gate fee is the fee levied on a quantity of waste received at a waste processing facility. The fee differs depending on the composition of waste. Digital Waste Tracking is likely to result in fewer incidents of operators attempting to reduce their gate fee charges by misdescribing their waste.
• Resource efficiency. By digitising data, businesses/regulators will improve their understanding of the type and quantity of waste generated and this will enable businesses and regulators to identify high-value opportunities that increase resource productivity. For example, by facilitating improved data on the composition and destination of waste that could be repurposed, there could be a reduction in the amount of avoidable waste sent to landfill or incineration.
• Security of supply of critical raw materials. By increasing our understanding of where we are ‘losing’ critical raw materials as waste, we can carry out targeted interventions to divert these materials to recycling and reuse.
• Compliance with duty of care. Waste producers will likely be better informed about what has happened to their waste and this may increase their confidence that they are legally compliant with the duty of care regulation.

173. Under Option 3, there will also be a non-monetised benefit of improved competition within the waste sector . Illegal waste operators tend to impede competition by undercutting compliant businesses. Under Option 3, DWT is expected to prevent non-compliant waste operators from entering or remaining in the sector, in turn increasing the proportion of waste that is handled legally. The reduction in unfair competition and legitimate business’ increased access to waste may result in greater investment within the sector, for example, through increased labour force or capital investments.