The development of systems for property close collection of recyclables: experiences from Sweden and England (original) (raw)

Driving Forces for High Household Waste Recycling. Lessons from Sweden

This study explores the development of waste management infrastructure in Sweden in order to understand the trends and factors influencing the developments of waste management systems with extremely low landfilling rates and co-existing high recycling rates and large-scale incineration. The purpose of this paper is to discuss what lessons could be learnt from the existing municipal solid waste management systems in the old EU member states. The system in Sweden is among the best in the EU ensuring high resource recovery rates. The new member states could learn from the past experiences and avoid potential mistakes in long-term strategic planning. The paper focuses on the effects of different administrative and economic policy instruments. The focus is on the effects of a producer responsibility principle, introduction of deposit-refund systems, taxes on landfilling and incineration as well as regulatory bans on waste treatment options. It also provides a historic perspective on what kinds of internal and external factors shaped the development in Sweden. In the end, a discussion is focusing on lessons learnt and possible implications for waste management systems in Lithuania.

Use of recycling stations in Borlänge, Sweden – volume weights and attitudes

Waste Management, 2004

This paper presents a study of recycling stations in the municipality of Borl€ ange, Sweden. The main objectives were to measure volume weights of recyclables, to facilitate future planning of collection intervals and bin/container volume, and to investigate the general attitudes among the public towards waste management in general and recycling stations in particular. Volume weights measured in bins/containers were: paper/newsprint: 297 kg/m 3 , glass packaging: 297 kg/m 3 , metal packaging: 81.7 kg/m 3 , paper packaging: 27.8 kg/m 3 , plastic packaging: 28.1 kg/m 3 . The recycling stations have been in use since 1994. Most visitors (90%) arrived by car but said the visit to the recycling station was not the main purpose of the trip. The results from the interviews indicated that the people who use the recycling stations have found ways to incorporate waste sorting into their everyday lives, with the help of information, design of the collection system and environmental concerns.

Today's perfect - tomorrow's standard : the role of consumers and the limits of policy in recycling

2011

In this study the mechanisms influencing recycling rates around the system maximum are deliberated. On the one hand, Policies, System design and how Citizens understand the two aforementioned are pitted against each other. This is done in a setting where individual rewards from action are in turn set against the values of the community and the compliance measures/social marketing of recycling companies and policy makers. This is the dynamic setting of this dissertation. In the past much research into recycling has been focused on how to get recycling started. Sweden is in a bit of a different position with recycling levels often being very high in an international comparison. This means other challenges face citizens and policy makers alike. The determinants influencing recycling rates are studied and compared to contemporary research. Policy makers and social marketers that wish to see a system used to its fullest need to understand the determinants that remain to be influenced nea...

From collision to collaboration - Integrating informal recyclers and re-use operators in Europe: A review

Waste management & research : the journal of the International Solid Wastes and Public Cleansing Association, ISWA, 2016

The European Union hosts some of the world's most developed waste management systems and an ambitious policy commitment to the circular economy. The existence of informal recycling and re-use activities in Europe has been vigorously denied until quite recently, and remains a very challenging subject for the European solid waste management sector, as well as for European government and private institutions. In countries ranging from Malta to Macedonia and from France to Turkey, informal recyclers excluded from legal recycling niches increasingly collide with formalised and controlled European Union approaches to urban waste management, packaging recovery schemes, formal re-use enterprises, and extended producer responsibility systems.This review focuses on the period from 2004 through the first half of 2016. The 78 sources on European (and neighbouring) informal recycling and re-use are contextualised with global sources and experience. The articles focus on informal recovery in ...

Recycling Europe's Domestic Wastes: The Hope of "Greening" Mass Consumption through Recycling. In: Wöbse, Anna-Katharina; Kupper, Patrick (Hg.): Greening Europe. Environmental Protection in the Long Twentieth Century - A Handbook. Berlin 2022, S. 269-301.

Recycling Europe’s Domestic Wastes: The Hope of ‘Greening’ Mass Consumption through Recycling. , 2022

In the 1970s and 1980s, waste recycling was politically promoted as a strategy to lower the environmental impact of postconsumer waste. In diverse Western European cities, local recycling projects emerged as a result of civic and ecological activism. What began as an eco-movement turned into the main pillar of municipal waste management, as stakeholders from industry and politics, and environmental activists agreed that recycling was the best way to handle rising amounts of waste. Moreover, consumers began to carve out an unexpected form of a "consumer-recycler citizenship": Sorting, storing, and transporting one's waste for recycling (or not) became a means to express one's individual environmental awareness as a consumer. A closer examination of glass recycling demonstrates that recycling was a mixed blessing. The 1970s bottle banks were driven by the idea of defying the throwaway culture as expressed by disposable glass bottle, but in the end, it represented a further shift away from reusing (the traditional returnable bottle) towards disposal and scrapping.

Capturing uncaptured values — A Danish case study on municipal preparation for reuse and recycling of waste

Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 2018

The current call for a transition towards circular economy is often accompanied by the assumption that there are value creation potentials to be captured along with increased resource efficiency. In this study, we aim to provide more detailed knowledge about the size and characteristics of the potential value to be captured from the resources embedded in waste. In order to investigate circular economy potentials in a real-life context, we apply case study research. The case is a municipal waste management company collecting and managing household waste. A number of initiatives are employed to collect as much waste for reuse and recycling as possible. The waste fractions with the highest collection potential are identified as being cardboard, plastics, waste wood and items for reuse. The subsequent processes of preparing these waste types for reuse and recycling are analyzed in the perspective of circular economy value creation. The data include waste amounts, the company's economic accounting, interviews and observations. From the perspective of the municipal waste authority, the largest value creation potential (economically, socially and environmentally) lies in preparing waste for reuse. Secondly, cardboard for recycling has an economic value potential. The collection, preparation and sales of waste wood and plastics constitute an economic deficit and hold limited environmental and social value. The findings suggest that the current regulation of the waste sector does not sufficiently support a transition to circular economy. From a focus on cost-effectiveness, waste managers must additionally change their mindsets towards a focus on value creation and increase reuse related activities. 1 Prevention 2 (Preparation for) reuse 3 Recycling 4 Energy recovery

Comparison of different collection systems for sorted household waste in Sweden

Waste Management, 2007

Composition and quantity per person of municipal solid waste (MSW) have been analyzed in six municipalities in southern Sweden with similar socio-economic conditions but with different collection systems. Samples of residual waste have been sorted, classified and weighed in 21 categories during 26 analyses that took place from 1998–2004. Collection data of the total waste flow, including source sorted recycling materials, in the same area have been compiled and compared. Multivariate data analyses have been applied. Weight-based billing reduced delivered amounts of residual household waste by 50%, but it is unknown to what extent improper material paths had developed. With curbside collection more metal, plastic and paper packaging was separated and left to recycling. When separate collection of biodegradables was included in the curbside system, the overall sorting of dry recyclables increased. The large uncertainty associated with waste composition analyses makes it difficult to draw strong conclusions regarding the effects on specific recyclables or the changes in the composition of the residual waste.

Evaluation of recycling programmes in household waste collection systems 13 PUBLICATIONS 203 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE

A case study and a literature review have been carried out to address the two questions: how can waste flow data from collection systems be interpreted and compared? and which factors are decisive in the results of recycling programmes in household waste collection systems? The aim is to contribute to the understanding of how recycling programmes affect the quantity of waste and sorting activities. It is shown how the results from various waste sorting systems can be interpreted and made comparable. A set of waste flow indicators is proposed, which together with generic system descriptions can facilitate comparisons of different collections systems. The evaluation of collection systems depends on the system boundaries and will always be site-specific to some degree. Various factors are relevant, e.g. environmental objectives, technical function, operating costs, types of recyclable materials collected separately, property-close collection or drop-off systems, economic incentives, information strategies, residential structure, social codes, etc. Kerbside collection of recyclables and weight-based billing led to increased waste sorting activities in the case study. Forty-three decisive factors are listed and discussed.

Perspectives on recycling centres and future developments

Applied Ergonomics, 2016

The overall aim of this paper is to draw combined, all-embracing conclusions based on a long-term multidisciplinary research programme on recycling centres in Sweden, focussing on working conditions, environment and system performance. A second aim is to give recommendations for their development of new and existing recycling centres and to discuss implications for the future design and organisation. Several opportunities for improvement of recycling centres were identified, such as design, layout, ease with which users could sort their waste, the work environment, conflicting needs and goals within the industry, and industrialisation. Combining all results from the research, which consisted of different disciplinary aspects, made it possible to analyse and elucidate their interrelations. Waste sorting quality was recognized as the most prominent improvement field in the recycling centre system. The research identified the importance of involving stakeholders with different perspectives when planning a recycling centre in order to get functionality and high performance. Practical proposals of how to plan and build recycling centres are given in a detailed checklist.