Suchergebnisse

This study examines the situation of energy recovery of packaging waste in Finland,packaging waste utilization in the Russian neighboring areas and the state of operational andbusiness environment of packaging waste recovery development schemes. Wastemanagement and recovery of waste materials carry current and focal problems in Finland andin Russia. Both tightening national environmental legislation under the influence of EUregulations and the need to reclaim wastes have caused the state of change in the wastemanagement field in Finland. In Russia, the situation of reclaiming waste materials is poorerand the recovery rates of waste fractions are low.Finnish energy production facilities seem to have obvious needs for replacing fossil fuels withrenewable energy sources and waste derived fuels given that the quality requirements exist.The situation with exceeding the demand and companies competing for waste derived fuels isalready foreseeable. In the sparsely populated country, the collecting of waste for recovery isalso a matter of feasibility. On the other hand, economic growth, the growing purchasingpower and the supply of consumer goods in Russia, especially in the city of St. Petersburg andLeningrad region close to the Finnish border, have a measurable effect on the volume andcomposition of generated packaging waste, now mainly disposed in landfills.The cooperative Finnish-Russian cross-border recovery of packaging waste is a potentialoption for Finnish and Russian companies to develop their businesses and promote wasterecovery. The biggest challenges in implementing new operations relate to legislativedifferences, foreign license practices and different waste management systems. In this paper,we present a theoretical model of an energy recovery scheme from the perspective of Finnishenergy production facility. ; This study examines the situation of energy recovery of packaging waste in Finland,packaging waste utilization in the Russian neighboring areas and the state of operational andbusiness environment of packaging waste recovery development schemes. Wastemanagement and recovery of waste materials carry current and focal problems in Finland andin Russia. Both tightening national environmental legislation under the influence of EUregulations and the need to reclaim wastes have caused the state of change in the wastemanagement field in Finland. In Russia, the situation of reclaiming waste materials is poorerand the recovery rates of waste fractions are low.Finnish energy production facilities seem to have obvious needs for replacing fossil fuels withrenewable energy sources and waste derived fuels given that the quality requirements exist.The situation with exceeding the demand and companies competing for waste derived fuels isalready foreseeable. In the sparsely populated country, the collecting of waste for recovery isalso a matter of feasibility. On the other hand, economic growth, the growing purchasingpower and the supply of consumer goods in Russia, especially in the city of St. Petersburg andLeningrad region close to the Finnish border, have a measurable effect on the volume andcomposition of generated packaging waste, now mainly disposed in landfills.The cooperative Finnish-Russian cross-border recovery of packaging waste is a potentialoption for Finnish and Russian companies to develop their businesses and promote wasterecovery. The biggest challenges in implementing new operations relate to legislativedifferences, foreign license practices and different waste management systems. In this paper,we present a theoretical model of an energy recovery scheme from the perspective of Finnishenergy production facility.

Traces development of packaging waste policy in order to assess the policy role of various Community institutions, and thereby identify central features of the integration process; European Union. Roles of the Council, Commission, and the European Parliament; implications for a state-centric versus a supranational model of integration.

This article explores problems surrounding the implementation of European Union (EU) environmental policy within Member States. It focuses on harmonization and flexibility within the implementation process, from both a free‐trade and an environmental perspective. The context is the Packaging Waste Directive, legislation requiring Member States to establish packaging waste recycling systems. The directive has encouraged Member States to employ economic instruments in the implementation process, a strategy which has led to the development of various national packaging waste systems. As a result, differences between the British and German approaches to environmental policy have become apparent, despite the adoption by both of systems based on economic instruments. The two national models are contrasted and the extent to which flexible implementation has produced harmonized legislative standards, threats to free trade, and improved environmental quality are reviewed. The article proposes that where relatively peripheral conflicts between the operation of the single market and environmental policy objectives occur, genuine environmental protection measures should not automatically be impeded by free‐trade technicalities.

Due to the environmental challenges associated with the strong growth of plastic waste worldwide, the EU Commission recently published a green paper on a European Strategy on Plastic Waste in the Environment (COM (2013), 123 final), which highlights the challenges and opportunities that arise from improving the management of plastic waste in the EU. The European Waste Directive (2008/98/EC) which was transposed into German law through the Kreislaufwirtschaftsgesetz (KrWG) established the so-called 5-step waste hierarchy, which gives a clear preference to recycling over energy recovery and disposal of waste in landfills. Although waste avoidance and recycling are stated objectives of German waste policy, effectiveness and efficiency of the respective regulations seems to be influenced negatively by interactions with other policy instruments. Both, the internal interaction between different waste management policies as well as the external interaction between waste management policy and climate policy, seem to have a negative impact on the recycling of plastic packaging material. In order to gain insights regarding the impacts of different policy instruments on the recycling of plastic packaging waste, we conducted a case study analysis based on data gained from an online survey among German experts in the field of plastic packaging waste management and from the literature on waste management. Apparently, negative policy interactions originate from conflicting interests between the stakeholders of the different waste treatment options, i. e. recycling, thermal recovery and incineration. In the policy design stage, these conflicting interests have resulted in a regulatory flexibility that has made the recycling objective susceptible to the potentially negative effects of policy interactions. Apart from the requirement to achieve the minimum recycling quota for plastic packaging waste of 36 %, the waste management actors are flexible to choose their preferred waste treatment option once this threshold level has been achieved. In particular with regard to the recovery of low and medium grade plastic waste, economic incentives for thermal recovery and incineration seem to be much stronger than for recycling. This situation can partly be explained by the demand of energy intensive industries for plastic waste as a substitute for conventional energy sources. This trend has resulted in a considerable increase of the thermal recovery of plastic packaging waste between 2003 (2.3%) and 2010 (25.6%). With re-gard to waste incineration, the effect of the TA Siedlungsabfall (TaSi) on the build-up of incineration capacity and the economic imperative to utilize these capacities materialized in low costs for waste incineration. The massive build-up of capacities for waste incineration and RDF power plants decreased the costs for thermal recovery and made recycling less competitive. Structural changes of the packaging waste stream have also had a negative influence in recycling because the use of composite materials can render recycling technologically and economically infeasible.

Paper discusses the findings of a research project which explored the packaging waste management system in Latvia. The paper focuses on identifying how the policy mechanisms can promote ecodesign implementation and material efficiency improvement and therefore reduce the rate of packaging waste accumulation in landfill. The method used for analyzing the packaging waste management policies is system dynamics modeling. The main conclusion is that the existing legislative instruments can be used to create an effective policy for ecodesign implementation but substantially higher tax rates on packaging materials and waste disposal than the existing have to be applied.