{"id":11478,"date":"2026-06-15T10:15:47","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T10:15:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nantek.es\/?p=11478"},"modified":"2026-10-19T14:43:46","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T14:43:46","slug":"pyrolysis-for-landfills-and-large-waste-managers-from-financial-liability-to-recurring-revenue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nantek.es\/en\/pyrolysis-for-landfills-and-large-waste-managers-from-financial-liability-to-recurring-revenue\/","title":{"rendered":"Pyrolysis for landfills and large waste managers: from financial liability to recurring revenue"},"content":{"rendered":"

For a landfill or a large waste manager, plastic rejects are today a liability: they use up cell capacity, pay tax per tonne and clash with the 2035 landfill targets. Pyrolysis changes the equation because it transforms those rejects into oil and other products that have a buyer, so the tonne that used to cost money starts generating recurring revenue. This article explains where the cost lies, how it turns into revenue and what it takes to integrate pyrolysis into an environmental complex.<\/p>\n

Why plastic rejects are a financial liability<\/h2>\n

Much of the plastic that arrives at a landfill or leaves a treatment plant has no outlet in mechanical recycling. It consists of dirty films, multilayers, polymer mixtures and contaminated fractions. Its usual destination is the cell. And every tonne that goes into the cell carries three costs that tend to be analysed separately, even though they add up.<\/p>\n

Cell lifespan<\/h3>\n

A landfill’s permitted capacity is finite. Plastic has a low density even when compacted, so it takes up a disproportionate volume relative to its weight. Every cubic metre it occupies brings forward the exhaustion of the cell and, with it, the need to open a new one, with its environmental permitting, investment and local opposition. Ceasing to bury plastic means, in practice, extending the life of the waste manager’s most expensive asset.<\/p>\n

Landfill tax<\/h3>\n

Since 1 January 2023, Spain’s Waste Law 7\/2022 has taxed the delivery of waste to landfill, incineration and co-incineration. The facility operator acts as a substitute taxpayer, meaning it collects the tax and pays it over. The state rates for non-hazardous waste landfills are as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Waste delivered to a non-hazardous waste landfill<\/th>\nState rate<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Municipal waste<\/td>\n40 euros per tonne<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Municipal waste rejects<\/td>\n30 euros per tonne<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Other waste exempt from prior treatment<\/td>\n15 euros per tonne (with specific rules for the inert fraction)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Other waste<\/td>\n10 euros per tonne (with specific rules for the inert fraction)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Spain’s autonomous communities (regional governments) can raise these rates in their territory. By way of illustration, 10,000 tonnes a year of municipal rejects amount to 300,000 euros a year in state tax alone, before counting transport, the landfill gate fee or the opportunity cost of the cell. The details of that cost curve are in our analysis of the real landfill cost per tonne up to 2030<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Regulatory risk<\/h3>\n

The third cost is the hardest to quantify and the one that weighs most heavily in a boardroom: the risk that a business model based on landfill stops being viable before the concession ends.<\/p>\n

The 2030 and 2035 targets that change the model<\/h2>\n

Directive (EU) 2018\/850, which amended the Landfill Directive, sets two milestones that directly affect large waste managers:<\/p>\n