Portugal Rewrites Where Its Waste Tax Goes: at Least 60 Percent for Waste Projects From 2027, and Councils That Meet Their Plans Skip the Yearly Rise
A decree published today replaces the fixed shares of Portugal's waste management tax: from 2027 at least 60 percent must reach the Environmental Fund for waste projects, councils get at least 30 percent, and councils that meet their waste plans escape the yearly 5 euro rise.
The tax that Portugal charges on every tonne of rubbish sent to landfill or burned is getting a new rulebook. Decreto-Lei n.º 205/2026 (Decree-Law 205/2026), published in the Diário da República (Portugal's official gazette) today, amends the Regime Geral da Gestão de Resíduos (General Waste Management Regime) and changes how the Taxa de Gestão de Resíduos (Waste Management Tax, TGR) is shared out, with a reward for councils that meet their recycling plans. It enters into force next month.
What the tax costs now
The decree does not set new rates. Those come from Despacho n.º 15554-A/2025 (Order 15554-A/2025), which adds 5 euros a tonne every year from 2026 to 2030. The 2020 law fixed the rate at 35 euros a tonne for 2025, so the schedule runs from 40 euros this year to 60 euros in 2030. The order justifies the rise by Portugal's 54 percent landfill rate.
The TGR is paid by municipal and multimunicipal waste systems, incinerators, landfills and the bodies that run recycling schemes for packaging and other products. Under the 2020 law, it must be passed on through tariffs along the chain to whoever produces the waste.
Where the money will go
Until now, the law split the TGR paid by waste systems and treatment plants in fixed shares: 30 percent each to the licensing body, the national waste authority and the councils (paid through the Fundo Ambiental, or Environmental Fund), and 10 percent to the inspectorate and the police forces, as the Agência Portuguesa do Ambiente (Portuguese Environment Agency, APA) sets out on its TGR pages.
The new decree replaces the percentages. The inspectorate IGAMAOT, the GNR and PSP police, the regional authorities and the national waste authority get the amount they received the year before, updated for inflation. Everything else goes to the Environmental Fund, which must spend it on waste and circular economy projects. From 2027, those bodies may take no more than 40 percent of total TGR revenue, so at least 60 percent reaches the fund. At least 30 percent of the TGR paid by waste systems must go to councils, for projects such as more efficient separate collection. The new split applies backwards to 1 January 2026, and the waste authority must publish a yearly report by 30 June showing who got the money and for what.
A break for councils that hit their targets
A council that meets all the goals of its municipal waste plan approved by the national authority skips the annual increase and pays last year's rate. A council that meets 75 to 100 percent of them gets an increase a quarter smaller.
The decree recalls the targets: no more than 10 percent of urban waste in landfill by 2035, and at least 60 percent prepared for reuse or recycled by 2030. Portugal recycled 39 percent of its urban waste in 2025.
What it means for you
- Your waste bill: until councils measure or estimate each household's waste, bills for the waste service must show what the service costs, using a method set by the Entidade Reguladora dos Serviços de Águas e Resíduos (Water and Waste Services Regulator, ERSAR).
- Asbestos from small home works: for building works that need no licence or prior notice, your council's waste service may now collect asbestos waste, for a specific tariff.
- Businesses: where no private operator offers a fair service, a firm may ask the municipal system to collect and treat its waste under a contract of up to three years. This applies 180 days after the decree enters into force.
