Over the last two decades, emissions trading schemes (ETSs) have emerged as one of the most favored policy tools for promoting green growth. The best-known and largest carbon market is the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), which is now in its fourth phase and was established in 2005. The EU ETS has functioned as a dynamic environmental policy instrument and has proven its efficiency. For instance, GHG emissions have been reduced by 42.8% in the main sectors (power and heat generation and energy-intensive industries) due to EU ETS since 2005. Following the first evidence, a crucial stream of literature has analyzed the environmental consequences of EU ETS, focusing on the current covered sectors and gasses. However, the possible effects created by the inclusion of different sectors have been neglected. According to the recent debates about the inclusion of the waste management sector in the EU ETS, this study investigates the implications of the inclusion of this sector in the EU ETS. To this end, the possible outcomes are analyzed according to the following fields: (i) cost occurrence, change in cost pass-through and windfall profits, (ii) competitiveness and development in market position, (iii) carbon leakage.