Recognising waste use potential to achieve a circular economy (original) (raw)
Related papers
EU waste regulation in the context of the circular economy: peculiarities of interaction
Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues
The European Union (EU) is implementing the concept of the circular economy (hereafter-CE) system, the main idea of which is to maintain the added value in products for as long as possible both to improve the quality of the environment and eliminate waste. These provisions presuppose the improvement of EU waste management systems and legal regulation. The European Commission proposed a legislative package for amending the main Directives related to waste management. The European Parliament and the Council adopted this document in 2018. The legislative package amends six Directives, which are the main components of the legal framework for waste management in the EU. These are systematic changes in EU waste law regulation and include: the modification of the waste management system; the alignment of definitions; and the formulation of new legal definitions (for example municipal waste, backfilling) or establishment of qualitative and quantitative indicators which cover the meaning of waste hierarchy. The aim of this article is to divulge the main legal changes, and to evaluate their content in the context of the concept of the CE.
Waste and Circular Economy in the European Policies
2019
The present chapter deals with the EU waste policies in order to: outline the integrated strategies that orient the regulatory and procedural instruments, develop the infrastructure measures, finance the research, boost the market of secondary raw materials, support the improvement of production models, regulate the information flows. In order to refer the subject of waste to the wider field of the circular economy, various EU waste initiatives, communications from the Commission to the European Parliament, programmes and laws are investigated, highlighting the essential features of the evolving scenario. In particular, the Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EC, considered as the fundamental legal framework for treating waste in the EU, is analyzed in order to investigate the possible strategies for the application of the waste hierarchy to the construction sector in the perspective of the circular economy.
Waste Legislation and the Circular Economy
Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov. Series VII: Social Sciences • Law, 2022
The circular economy transforms the traditional economic model by introducing those models of production and consumption that ensure the reuse and recycling of materials and products. The life cycle of the products is thus much extended. However, any product will at some point become waste. This article sets out how waste legislation supports or even imposes the circular economy by (i) regulating the notion of by-product (ii) introducing mandatory recycling targets and (iii) specific criteria for recycling certain categories of waste.
This paper proposes an overarching review of national municipal waste management systems and waste-to-energy as an important part of it in the context of circular economy in the selected countries in Europe. The growth of population and rising standards of living means that the consumption of goods and energy is increasing. On the one hand, consumption leads to an increase in the generation of waste. On the other hand, the correlation between increased wealth and increased energy consumption is very strong as well. Given that the average heating value of municipal solid waste (MSW) is approximately 10 MJ/kg, it seems logical to use waste as a source of energy. Traditionally, waste-to-energy (WtE) has been associated with incineration. Yet, the term is much broader, embracing various waste treatment processes generating energy (for instance, in the form of electricity and/or heat or producing a waste-derived fuel). Turning waste into energy can be one key to a circular economy enabling the value of products, materials, and resources to be maintained on the market for as long as possible, minimising waste and resource use. As the circular economy is at the top of the EU agenda, all Member States of the EU (including the EEA countries) should move away from the old-fashioned disposal of waste to a more intelligent waste treatment encompassing the circular economy approach in their waste policies. Therefore, the article examines how these EU policies are implemented in practice. Given that WtE traditionally is attached to the MSW management and organisation, the focus of this article is twofold. Firstly, it aims to identify the different practices of municipal waste management employed in selected countries and their approaches in embracing the circular economy and, secondly, the extent to which WtE technologies play any role in this context. The following countries, and the UK were chosen to depict a broad European context.
Towards a Circular Economy– a Zero Waste Programme for Europe
This paper presents key elements of the revised waste proposals. From the new waste proposals will benefits the economy, citizens and the environment. Clear rules, common standards and support for the use of more secondary raw materials will create a safe and sustainable supply of raw materials to the industry. This helps create new jobs, supports innovation and boosts competitiveness. Improved waste management rules will reduce landfill and tipping fees. Smarter use of resources is not only good for business, but will also help protect the environment preserve essential resources for current and future generations, and create synergies for industries which most depend on it-such as tourism, agriculture and food manufacturing.
Sustainability pathways in European waste management for meeting circular economy goals
Environmental Research Letters, 2023
This study explores trends in recycling rates and municipal solid waste landfilling to construct a circularity index (CI) forecasted up to 2035. This projection is contrasted with the pathways that countries must adopt to attain set targets. We further estimate the impact of the CI on factors such as sustainability performance, innovation, commodity trade balance, and waste reduction. Moreover, we provide policy implications useful for designing industrial and environmental strategies, including accelerating permit approval times for waste treatment facilities, introducing more flexibility in state aid rules, empowering service users or waste generators, implementing tax credits, and leveraging specialized funds. These strategies are aimed at supporting the recycling industry to stimulate convergence and achieve circular economy objectives.
Circling the economy: resource-making and marketization in EU electronic waste policy
Area, 2015
This article investigates the reinvention of electrical and electronic waste as a resource in the context of the EU market economy. It argues that the European regulatory framework is underpinned by a particular vision of ‘circular economy’ that both internalises e-waste within formal economic circuits and confines its exchange to the territory of the single market. Yet the boundaries of this economic regime continue to be highly permeable, as the terminus of two thirds of the products placed on the market remains unaccounted for, said to dissipate via various loopholes in waste collection and treatment. Based on analysis of the policy rationale and praxis, the article relates this failure to the fact that e-waste is identified in ambiguous terms as comprising both socio-ecological risk and economic value, or what is termed here the ‘logic of hazard’ and the ‘logic of resource’. The making of resources from potentially hazardous materials hinges on the extent to which incremental quantities of end-of-life equipment can be translated into a uniform tradable good, the movements of which are documented, calculated and monitored through standard methods. The two logics are complementary insofar as they legitimise the spatial enclosure of e-waste trade, but they can also come into conflict, since the double identity of e-waste complicates the reframing of market boundaries and generates different objects of regulation. The case study advances geographical research on materials and ‘marketization’, enabling the materiality of e-waste to be conceptualised as both a product of and obstacle to the territorial b/ordering of the market.
Waste Disposal in the European Union Normative Framework and Practice
Foreign Legal Life, 2017
Waste disposal is a global challenge, particularly in the context of environmental pollution prevention and human health protection. That is the reason why the European Union has been adopting and applying a series of documents pertinent to this issue. The most relevant are: Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 November 2008 on Waste and Council Directive 1999/31/EC of 26 April 1999 on the Landfill of Waste. However, the reports of the European Commission and the practice of the Court of Justice of the European Union confirm that there are numerous disparities between the Member States regarding the implementation of standards of waste management in general and in particular, waste disposal. The Republic of Serbia has to make substantial improvements in the area of waste disposal, especially in the context of the upcoming opening of the Negotiation Chapter 27, dedicated to the environment and climate change. Therefore, the authors analyse legal sources of the European Union related to waste disposal, reports on their application and relevant practice of the Court of Justice of the European Union as potential directions and guidelines. Key words: waste, waste disposal, landfill, environmental protection, European Union.
From Waste Management to Resource Efficiency—The Need for Policy Mixes
Sustainability
Treating waste as a resource and the design of a circular economy have been identified as key approaches for resource efficiency. Despite ambitious targets, policies and instruments that would enable a transition from a conventional waste management to an integrated and comprehensive resource management are still missing. Moreover, this will require innovative policy mixes which do not only address different end-of-pipe approaches but integrate various resource efficiency aspects from product design to patterns of production and consumption. Based on the results of a project funded by the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development named "POLFREE-Policy Options for a resource efficient economy", this paper addresses several aspects of the conceptualization of policy mixes with regard to waste as a specific resource efficiency challenge. The guiding research interest of this paper is the combination of policies necessary to create a full circular economy. In a first step, the present waste policy frameworks, institutions and existing incentives at national level are examined in order to disclose regulatory and policy gaps. Based on this, the second part of the paper describes and analyses specific waste-related resource efficiency instruments with regard to their potential impacts under the constraints of various barriers. Based on the assessment of the country analyses and the innovative instruments, the paper draws conclusions on waste policy mixes and political needs.
Global Tendencies in Waste Management Considering Circular Economy Principles
2017
With a growing urban population, that consumes an ever increasing amount of raw materials, the approach of the circular economy has gained interest from academia and decision-makers as a promising solution to urban challenges. This review aims to find out in how far the circular economy is reflected as a guiding principle of waste management in the academic literature during the past ten years. A selection of 28 full-text papers dealing with specific case studies have been analysed regarding their geographical scale (international, national, municipal, industrial) and the principles of reduce, reuse, recycle and recover. The results indicate a stronger consideration of the recycling and reuse principles on the national and municipal levels, as well as a strong research representation of the European Union and China. Furthermore, a number of technical papers dealing with the recover principle on the industrial scale have been identified. While the strong arguments for a move towards ...