The evolution of municipal waste management in Europe: how different are national regimes? (original) (raw)

Packaging Waste Economy: Insight Into Efficiency of Monopolistic and Competitive Waste Management Systems in the Eu

5th LIMEN Selected Papers (part of LIMEN conference collection), 2019

This paper reviews different packaging waste management systems in the member states of the EU, organized as Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) systems. The principle of responsible waste management in EU is influenced by policy goals and assignments. Individual member states must ensure that set waste management goals are met. The individual Member States comply with these goals using different regulatory instruments as EU does not set how these goals are to be achieved. Therefore, there are various systems in individual countries that achieve different results. Topic of this paper offers unique opportunity to compare efficiency of different regulatory tools in each country. There are two major groups into which this paper categorizes individual packaging waste management systems: monopolistic systems, and competitive systems. Comparison of results and cost effectiveness of individual packaging waste management systems helps to seek optimal organization of packaging waste utili...

European Experience in Waste Management

Environmental Sciences Proceedings

The development of the waste management system in the European Union is studied. The waste management practices in a range of the EU countries are analyzed. The main principles of solving the problem of managing waste in the EU are revealed. A comparison of indicators for waste management in the EU and Ukraine is provided. The dominant European trends among other areas of waste—“zero waste” and “circular economy”—are identified. The regulatory framework for waste management developed in Ukraine as a step towards international environmental safety standards is discussed.

EU Legislative Support in the Waste Sector

EU agrarian Law, 2021

In the waste sector, EU Member States implement EU legislation. They rely on EU Directives and their waste legislation and policies. During the evaluated period (2015–2021), the Slovak Republic amended the Waste Act 79/2015 Coll. and issued strategy papers following EU legislation. France adopted its National program for prevention of waste and Finland its National waste management plan. In our research, we use a method of comparison and analysis of selected legislative documents to examine the achievement of the Green Deal’s objectives in the Slovak Republic and selected EU countries. We have shown the legislative process results through research, which indicate the achievement of set waste management goals. In our future research we will focus on building waste management infrastructure in the EU since it is necessary to apply the idea promoting the support of such waste treatment facilities that will be sustainable throughout their existence.

Packaging waste recycling in Europe: Is the industry paying for it?

Waste Management, 2014

This paper describes and examines the schemes established in five EU countries for the recycling of packaging waste. The changes in packaging waste management were mainly implemented since the Directive 94/62/EC on packaging and packaging waste entered into force. The analysis of the five systems allowed the authors to identify very different approaches to cope with the same problem: meet the recovery and recycling targets imposed by EU law. Packaging waste is a responsibility of the industry. However, local governments are generally in charge of waste management, particularly in countries with Green Dot schemes or similar extended producer responsibility systems. This leads to the need of establishing a system of financial transfers between the industry and the local governments (particularly regarding the extra costs involved with selective collection and sorting). Using the same methodological approach, the authors also compare the costs and benefits of recycling from the perspective of local public authorities for France, Portugal and Romania. Since the purpose of the current paper is to take note of who is paying for the incremental costs of recycling and whether the industry (i.e. the consumer) is paying for the net financial costs of packaging waste management, environmental impacts are not included in the analysis. The work carried out in this paper highlights some aspects that are prone to be improved and raises several questions that will require further research. In the three countries analyzed more closely in this paper the industry is not paying the net financial cost of packaging waste management. In fact, if the savings attained by diverting packaging waste from other treatment (e.g. landfilling) and the public subsidies to the investment on the "recycling system" are not considered, it seems that the industry should increase the financial support to local authorities (by 125% in France, 50%

Waste problem in European Union and its influence on waste management behaviours

Science of The Total Environment, 2019

In EU significant differences was observed in terms of municipal waste generation. • The level of waste generation significantly depended on economic development. • The relationship between recycling behaviour and waste generation was significant. • Attitudes to personal waste generation influenced reducing and recycling behaviours.

NEW EUROPEAN UNION MEMBER COUNTRIES TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE WASTE MANAGEMENT, INVOLVEMENT OF INDIVIDUALS INTO THE SYSTEM

This paper provides a study, focused on the new member states and their experience in development of the sustainable waste management system and involvement of individuals into it. Almost all countries have achieved first stage – construction of new infrastructure and closure and recultivation of old sub-standard landfills. The article provides comparison of different methods, used in order to involve inhabitants into the waste management system and it concludes with one important aspect – deposit system, which has been discussed a lot lately. General aim of the paper is to compare European New Member states in terms of their achievements in the field of waste management and especially in the implementation of deposit system in the Baltic states. Tasks, undertaken within the research are, as follows: comparison of EU New Member State achievements in waste management, comparative analysis of economical instruments, applied in the field and of deposit system, implemented in the Baltic states. Methodology used is quantitative and qualitative comparative analysis. Main conclusions of the paper state, that in order to achieve goals, set for waste management, one of the most important aspects remains to be society education.

Implementation - More than Monitoring and Enforcement: Evidence from the Implementation of the 1989 Municipal Waste Incineration Directive (89/429/EEC) in Four Member States

2000

Researchers and policy-makers accept that implementation decisively influences the effectiveness of European (EU) environmental policy. Some Member States lead the development of EU policy and implement Directives with little problem. Others follow a variety of compliance (or non-compliance) paths. Implementation gaps and policy failures are prevalent. Policy outcomes often differ radically between even neighbouring Member States. What are the reasons for these differences? Why do Member States follow different compliance paths? Why do implementation gaps and policy failures occur? What factors can explain the different policy outcomes achieved? Is it only 'classical' implementation variables i.e. the monitoring and enforcement actions of public authorities that count? What lessons can we draw for the future? This paper addresses these questions through a comparative analysis of the implementation of the European Directive on the reduction of air pollution from existing municipal waste incineration plants (89/429/EEC) in Germany, the Netherlands, France and the United Kingdom: four neighbouring Member States that exhibit quite divergent compliance paths and policy outcomes. Monitoring and enforcement are found to have only limited explanatory power. In practice national contextual variables, such as: public and political environmental awareness; interactions both with environmental and non-environmental policies; regulatory anticipation and uncertainty; the degree of autonomy and scope of regulatory agencies; and, industrial and market structure of the regulated industry, must also be considered.

Wasteful waste-reducing policies? The impact of waste reduction policy instruments on collection and processing costs of municipal solid waste

Waste Management, 2011

We study the impact of some local policies aimed at municipal solid waste (MSW) reduction on the cost efficiency of MSW collection and disposal. We explicitly account for differences between municipalities in background conditions by using a bootstrapped version of the Data Envelopment Analysis methodology in combination with a matching technique. Using data on 299 municipalities in Flanders, Belgium, for the year 2003, our results indicate that municipalities that are member of a waste collection joint venture, or that subscribe to a voluntary agreement to reduce MSW at the highest ambition level, collect and process MSW more efficiently than other municipalities. Weekly instead of two-weekly waste collection, or using a weight-based pricing system appears to have no impact on efficiency. Our results show that aiming at MSW reduction does not lead to lower efficiency of public service provision, even on the contrary. (2008) provide a more detailed literature review.

Stick or carrot?: The use of policy measures to move waste management up the hierarchy

Waste Management & Research, 1996

A systematic shift in waste management away from disposal and towards waste prevention and recycling requires the use of an integrated set of policy measures to change the behaviour of waste generators; industry, commerce and consumers. This paper uses comprehensive data on policy measures in some 25 countries to examine the available options. The conclusion is that a balanced strategy needs to combine information dissemination mechanisms, legislative "sticks", producer responsibility, other economic "sticks" and economic "carrots".