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Increasing Landfill Tax means higher cost liabilities for the disposal of redundant stock.
Increasing Landfill Tax
For businesses holding obsolete, damaged, discontinued or unsaleable stock, simply throwing it away can be an increasingly expensive solution. In England and Northern Ireland, the standard rate of Landfill Tax increased to £130.75 per tonne from 1 April 2026. This tax applies to most taxable waste sent to landfill and is charged in addition to the normal costs associated with waste collection, transport, handling and disposal.
Although Landfill Tax is formally paid to HMRC by landfill operators, the cost is normally passed through to the businesses and organisations whose waste is being disposed of. This means that when redundant commercial stock ultimately ends up in landfill, the business disposing of it can effectively bear the cost of the tax as part of its overall waste bill.
You Have Stock You Don't Want. We Help You Clear It.
It is important to understand that Landfill Tax is only one part of the cost. The £130.75 per tonne standard rate is added to the underlying cost of accepting and disposing of the waste. Businesses may also incur charges for skips or containers, haulage, loading, labour, sorting and other waste-management services.
For companies disposing of significant quantities of redundant stock, those costs can quickly accumulate. A warehouse containing tens or hundreds of pallets of unwanted products could represent a substantial disposal liability if much of the material is simply treated as waste.
The Heavier the Stock, the Greater the Potential Cost
Landfill Tax is charged according to the weight of the material disposed of. This makes the issue particularly relevant to businesses holding large quantities of palletised stock.
Products such as furniture, homewares, tools, equipment, building products, packaged consumer goods and manufacturing components can represent considerable tonnage when accumulated across hundreds of pallets.
For example, 20 tonnes of standard-rated material sent to landfill would represent £2,615 of Landfill Tax alone at the current rate — before the underlying landfill charge, transport, containers, labour and other costs are considered.
Why Throw Everything Away?
The purpose of Landfill Tax is partly to encourage businesses to move material away from landfill and towards alternatives such as reuse, recycling and recovery.
That is also where We Clear Stock can help.
Rather than starting with the assumption that redundant inventory is simply waste that needs to be thrown away, we look at what the business actually has.
Some products may have opportunities for resale or reuse.
We Clear Stock works with retailers, distributors and manufacturers that need to clear palletised redundant inventory.
Whether you have discontinued lines, excess stock, customer returns, obsolete products, damaged inventory or an entire warehouse that needs clearing, talk to us before simply sending it for disposal.
We assess the stock and explore appropriate routes for resale, reuse, recovery and recycling, with disposal used where necessary.
The result can be a simpler clearance process, less demand on your own staff, valuable warehouse space returned to your business and potentially lower waste-management costs.