The costs and benefits of packaging waste management systems in Europe: the perspective of local authorities

Ferreira, S., Cabral, M., da Cruz, Nuno F. ORCID: 0000-0003-3381-6359, Simões, P. and Marques, R. C. (2017) The costs and benefits of packaging waste management systems in Europe: the perspective of local authorities. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 60 (5). pp. 773-791. ISSN 0964-0568

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Abstract

Local authorities are generally in charge of household packaging waste management operations, particularly in countries with Green Dot schemes or similar extended producer responsibility systems. This leads to the need of establishing a system of financial transfers between the packaging industry and the local authorities (regarding the costs involved in selective collection and sorting). In the present study, the costs and benefits of recycling from the perspective of local authorities are compared for Portugal, Belgium and Italy (in Lombardia region), adopting the same economic-financial methodology. The results show that the industry is not paying the net cost of packaging waste management. If the savings attained by diverting packaging waste from other treatment operations are not considered, it seems that the industry should increase the financial support to local authorities. However, if the avoided costs with other treatment are considered as a benefit for local authorities, the costs are generally outweighed by the benefits and the financial support could, therefore, be reduced.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cjep20/current
Additional Information:	© 2016 Newcastle University
Divisions:	LSE Cities
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor
Date Deposited:	15 Aug 2016 13:24
Last Modified:	07 Feb 2024 05:21
Funders:	European Investment Bank University Research Sponsorship
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/67484

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