Policy Instruments towards a Sustainable Waste Management

Abstract

Abstract:The aim of this paper is to suggest and discuss policy instruments that could lead towards a more sustainable waste management. The paper is based on evaluations from a large scale multi-disciplinary Swedish research program. The evaluations focus on environmental and economic impacts as well as social acceptance. The focus is on the Swedish waste management system but the results should be relevant also for other countries. Through the assessments and lessons learned during the research program we conclude that several policy instruments can be effective and possible to implement. Particularly, we put forward the following policy instruments: "Information"; "Compulsory recycling of recyclable materials"; "Weight-based waste fee in combination OPEN ACCESSSustainability 2013, 5 842 with information and developed recycling systems"; "Mandatory labeling of products containing hazardous chemicals", "Advertisements on request only and other waste minimization measures"; and "Differentiated VAT and subsidies for some services". Compulsory recycling of recyclable materials is the policy instrument that has the largest potential for decreasing the environmental impacts with the configurations studied here. The effects of the other policy instruments studied may be more limited and they typically need to be implemented in combination in order to have more significant impacts. Furthermore, policy makers need to take into account market and international aspects when implementing new instruments. In the more long term perspective, the above set of policy instruments may also need to be complemented with more transformational policy instruments that can significantly decrease the generation of waste.

Environmental Assessment of Possible Future Waste Management Scenarios

“…In the project, in total 13 waste policy instruments were evaluated [26]. Eight of them could be evaluated in a quantitative analysis; the others could only be evaluated qualitatively because of lack of information or unsuitable assessment tools.…”

“…Based on literature data (e.g., [56]) it was estimated that a weight based waste fee could lead to prevention of 900 ktonnes of waste in the reference scenario [26]. Not only environmental impacts from the waste treatment system, but also the benefits of avoided production due to waste prevention are taken into account.…”

“…Results for four of them are presented in this paper (Weight based waste fee, including waste in the system of green certificates, Climate waste incineration tax, and Resource tax). The others have been presented elsewhere (A differentiated VAT in [19]) or were assessed with other tools (Compulsory recycling of recyclable materials, Weightbased incineration tax and Advertisements on request only [26]). Results for the policy instrument "Weight based waste fee (alt.…”

“…Also the way the tax revenues are used can have an effect on the overall results (e.g., [58]). Besides the environmental assessment, other aspects were also included on a comprehensive evaluation summarized in Finnveden et al [26].…”

“…To present quantitative results on potential environmental impacts of policy instruments which were suggested to contribute to a more sustainable waste management [26].…”