Suchergebnisse

This study focuses in detail on the environmental compliance/competitiveness relationship with respect to the regulation of packaging waste. An important and innovative feature of the study is its emphasis on backward and forward linkages. An entire supply chain is considered: packaging manufacturers and suppliers, food processors and the food retail sector, to study the competitive effects of environmental standards on manufacturing companies and the vertical links and supply responses. A variety of regulatory regimes is represented by including within the study companies from Germany, Italy, the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom. While it is of note that the relatively strong regulation in Germany has indeed had effects on company behaviour, there is no evidence that environmental regulations hindered companies from achieving competitive performance. Analyses consider: the response of individual firms to different levels of regulation; the cost of compliance; impact on employment; the influence of the supply chain on environmental and competitive performance; the importance of firm size and ownership; and the impact of regulation on competitiveness, and firm competitiveness on the efficiency of adjustment to regulation

Increasing plastic waste recycling is a milestone of European environmental policy to reduce environmental impacts and dependency on foreign resources. This is particularly challenging for plastic packaging waste, consisting of very heterogeneous fractions and typically rather contaminated. In this study, we collected primary data from plants sorting and recycling plastic packaging waste to illustrate process efficiencies, material flows, and barriers. We observed that significant losses of target materials occurred both at sorting and recycling stages. These were higher for polymers such as films, polypropylene and polystyrene, and lower for polyethylene terephthalate and high-density polyethylene. Applying material flow analysis, we estimated an overall end-of-life recycling rate for post-consumer plastic packaging waste in EU27 in 2017 of 14% (not considering waste exported as recycled; 25% otherwise). An improved scenario for 2030 showed that achieving an overall end-of-life recycling rate of about 49% was possible when best available practices and technologies were implemented. To fulfil the ambitious recycling targets set at EU27 level (55% overall recycling rate), substantial improvements are necessary at the plants, product design, collection system, and market level. Our findings further indicate that films and other problematic contaminants in the input-waste considerably hamper the recovery rates, thus the improvement of the efficiency of the collection systems is imperative. In parallel, the development of markets for lower value fractions, e.g. polypropylene, could be a way forward to increase recycling, while improvements in the product design will considerably reduce the presence of impurities and contaminants in the input-waste.

Digitised version produced by the EUI Library and made available online in 2020.

Over the past 10 years, the amount of packaging generated across the EU has increased by almost 18 percent, with around 66 percent of packaging waste being recycled. The revision of the Packaging Directive should therefore primarily help to strengthen waste prevention, the recyclability of packaging and the use of recyclates and further develop information requirements. Material requirements should be stipulated in the Directive itself, supplemented by the possibility to set, if necessary, more extensive requirements for certain types of packaging in downstream legal acts. In a scientific opinion paper, the German Environment Agency presents a regulatory concept and recommendations in this regard.

This Discussion Paper discusses the implications of the European Green Deal and the Circular Economy Action Plan for plastic and packaging waste. According to a recent report, each European Union (EU) inhabitant generated 172.6 kg of packaging waste in the year 2017, 19% of which was made of plastic. Amid growing concerns about the environmental effects of such consumption habits, the regulation of packaging waste and plastic has moved to higher up the legislative agenda of the EU in recent years.

"The use of legislation by EU governments to define environmental standards for industry has been criticised for its poor track record in arresting the decline in the quality of Europe's environment. Environmental economists in particular have proposed that legislation should be supplemented or replaced by New Environmental Policy Instruments (NEPIs), such as eco-taxes, environmental charges, tradable permits and voluntary agreements. This book focuses on practical experiences with NEPIs in the EU and tests their application using the case study of the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive. It traces the ways in which member states have adapted NEPIs to suit their preferred styles of environmental policy, then assesses their performance and how NEPIs have both assisted and hindered the EU environmental programme. It suggests options for ensuring that the environmental programme does not become fragmented by the use of NEPIs and discusses the implications of EU enlargement."--Provided by publisher.

The paper takes the viewpoint of the neoinstitutional theory of the firm to analyse Germany's voluntary Dual Management System for Packaging Waste Collection and Recycling (DSD); namely, its governance structure and its contractual relations with upstream and downstream firms. Two aspects crucial for assessing the antitrust implications of voluntary environmental agreements are highlighted. First, the institutional fine-tuning of a voluntary agreement matters when assessing its implications for market competition. Second, the design of the threat with respect to the instruments it prescribes is of crucial importance for the degree of centralisation and the anti-competitive impact of the private institutions that subsequently emerge.