Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
at plastic waste. The only directive regulating the packaging and waste management
at the EU level is the European Parliament and Council Directive 94/62/EC from
1994 updated in 2004. This directive regulates the percentage of waste that must be
recycled. The following countries have implemented polyethylene terephthalate (PET)
bottles returning policy: Austria, Estonia, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Norway
and Sweden, of which three are G9 countries. When a consumer buys a soft drink
in a PET bottle, a surcharge of up to €0.25 is added to the price. When the bottle is
returned, the refund is paid back. In Spain there is no consumer PET return policy,
whereas there is one in the northern EU states [46].
5.4.2.3.3 Other European Countries
A different approach known as 'Extended Producer Responsibility' is adopted by
some of the European countries to manage post-consumer packaging including
plastics [32]. The main aim of this initiative is to encourage recovery and recycling
of packaging in general, where the industry makes payments to designated '
Producer
Responsibility Organisations
', which in turn arrange for the collection, separation,
recycling and recovery of the packaging.
In Sweden, because of their producer responsibility legislation, household waste is
divided into two lows, as indicated in
Table 5.6
. It can be observed from the table
that all types of wastes other than recyclables are handled by the Municipalities and
the plastics and other recyclables are handled by National Recycling Organisation:
Plastkretsen [47].
Table 5.6 Household waste categorisation in Sweden
No
Recyclables
Other types of wastes (Municipalities)
1
Electronic and electric wastes
Combustible, organic and other wastes
contained in the bags
2
Newsprint
Garden waste
3
Packaging: plastic, glass, metal and paper
Hazardous waste
4
Tyres
Heavy and bulky waste
Adapted from G. Bahri,
Sustainable Management of Plastic Bag Waste - The Case of Nairobi,
Kenya,
International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics Reports, Lund
University, Lund, Sweden, 2005, p.109. [MSc Thesis]
