Peer reviewed versionCyswllt i'r cyhoeddiad / Link to publication Dyfyniad o'r fersiwn a gyhoeddwyd / Citation for published version (APA): Galvez Martos, J. L.

Abstract:The "pay-as-you-throw" (PAYT) scheme is an economic instrument for waste management that applies the "polluter pays" principle by charging the inhabitants of municipalities according to the amount of residual, organic, and bulky waste they send for third-party waste management. When combined with well-developed infrastructure to collect the different waste fractions (residual waste, paper and cardboard, plastics, bio waste, green cuttings, and many recyclables) as well as with a good level of citizens' awareness, its performance has frequently been linked to an increase in the collection rates of recyclables. However, the establishment and operation of PAYT systems can require significant resource inputs from municipalities. In this paper, PAYT is analysed through a case study from the German County of Aschaffenburg, covering nearly 20 years of implementation across 32 municipalities with 173,000 inhabitants. Key performance indicators include temporal trends in the county's recyclables collection rate, waste treatment fees for residents, and municipal waste management costs, benchmarked against German municipalities not implementing PAYT. We conclude that PAYT could make an important contribution towards material reuse and recycling objectives for the new circular economy.

Background: In the 7th Environment Action Programme, the European Commission targets two essential goals in the handling of substances and materials known by the buzzwords "non-toxic environment" and "circular economy". There are numerous interfaces in product, waste and chemicals legislation in these two areas. This leads to conflicting objectives, e.g. with regard to the classification of waste in analogy to chemicals as well as at the border between waste and secondary raw materials that are further processed into products. Results:We investigate how these conflicting objectives can be mitigated or resolved. In our view, it is necessary to provide operators in the waste management sector with considerably more information on the composition of used products than before; this should include not only hazardous substances but also materials that interfere with the recycling process as well as recyclable or valuable materials. Waste management legislation largely follows risk considerations-a 1:1 transfer of hazard classifications of chemicals and products to waste management would be counterproductive to achieving the Commission's objectives. In the case of contaminated secondary raw materials, their input into products can be justified in specific cases. However, this requires a risk assessment that includes in particular physicochemical factors, patterns of utilisation and controlled collection routes. Internationally recognised lists of secondary materials are an important condition for determining end-of-waste status and thus for increasing material recycling. Conclusions:A common guiding principle for chemicals policy and waste management is urgently needed. © The Author(s) 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creat iveco mmons .org/licen ses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

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Background: Global waste recycling streams are accompanied by pollutant emission and concentration of hazardous substances within material cycles. For the latter, the term "risk cycle" is introduced. E.g. the illegal or semi-legal export of hazardous wastes like electronic scrap in developing countries for recycling is associated with risks for man and the environment, based on toxic and/or persistent chemical components of the discarded products.Results: The problem of cycling of pollutants within global waste recycling streams (risk cycle) can be solved in principle with the aid of REACH regulations. According to the demands of the REACH guidance documents, risk cycle associated emissions would have to be identified during the development of exposure scenarios and to be reduced by risk management measures. This would also apply to chemicals in electronic scrap as they pose health risks to workers at recycling sites with poor working conditions e.g. in Africa and Asia -regardless if exported illegally. Therefore it is necessary to check whether the substance dossiers of these chemicals, that have or had to be submitted under REACH, have considered such exposure scenarios.