V (2019) An overview of the problems posed by plastic products and the role of extended producer responsibility in Europe.

Apart from the health aspects and the high death toll, the COVID-19 pandemic has, since its official recognition in March 2020 caused may social and economic problems. It has also led to many environmental ones. For instance, the lockdowns have led to higher levels of consumption of packaged products, and of take-away food. This paper reports on an international study on the increased consumption and subsequent changes in the amounts of waste produced since the COVID-19 pandemic. The results show that 45-48% of the respondents observed an increased consumption of packed food, fresh food, and food delivery. One of the main reasons for the increased waste generation during the lockdown was the fact that people have spent more time at home. In addition, increases of 43% and 53% in food waste and plastic packaging. Drawing from comparisons on the amount of domestic waste produced before and during the pandemic, the findings suggest that some specific types of municipal waste have visibly increased, putting additional pressure on waste management systems. This characterises one of non-intended effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The results from this study provide useful insights to city administrations and municipal utilities on consumption patterns during emergency situations. This, in turn, may support more systemic and strategic measures to be taken, so as to curtail the increase of household waste during pandemic situations.

No abstract

Despite the significant reduction of phosphorus (P) discharge in the Baltic Sea in the last decades, obtained through the implementation of some approaches within the Helsinki Convention, eutrophication is still considered the biggest problem for the Baltic Sea environment. Consequently, the reduction of P load is an urgent need to solve, but the complexity of both the environmental and legislative context of the area makes this process difficult (more than in the past). Eutrophication is an intricate issue requiring a proper framework of governance that is not easy to determine in the Baltic Sea Region where the needs of several different countries converge. To identify the most suitable strategy to reduce the eutrophication in the Baltic Sea, the InPhos project (no. 17022, 2018–2019, funded by the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT) Raw Materials) adopted a holistic approach considering technical, political, economic, environmental and social aspects of P management. With the aims to raise awareness about the P challenge, foster the dialogue among all the stakeholders, and find solutions already developed in other countries (such as Germany and Switzerland) to be transferred in the Baltic Sea Region, the InPhos project consortium applied the methodology proposed in this paper, consisting of three main phases: (i) analysis of the available technologies to remove P from waste streams that contribute to eutrophication; (ii) analysis of the main streams involving P in Baltic Sea countries to highlight the potential of more sustainable and circular P management; (iii) study of the current context (e.g., already-existing initiatives and issues). This approach allowed us to identify four categories of recommendations and practical actions proposed to improve P management in the Baltic Sea region. During the project, the consortium mainly addressed social aspects. Following steps beyond the project will be more quantitative to determine the techno-economic feasibility of circular P management in selected demo cases in the region.

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to show that environmental management integration to a small Estonian enterprise which main activities are freightage services and vehicles' maintenance and repair works, implementing a visual, simple and practical tool – Eco‐mapping. Design/methodology/approach – The paper shows that Eco‐mapping is a practical, visual and easy‐to‐use toolbox, which gets employees, involved in good environmental practice. It is the first step towards integrating environmental considerations into the day‐to‐day activities of small SMEs. Eco‐mapping is a step‐by‐step process to gather useful information and to immediately trigger environmental action. In total, 80 percent of environmental information is location‐based. There are ten basic steps, which identify environmental aspects, significance of the problems, environmental targets and an action programme of the considered field. Findings – The findings in this paper show the implementation steps of Eco‐mapping tool into the small Estonian company. During the case study all hazardous impacts on human health and environment have been evaluated and the workers awareness was raised. Practical implications – The paper shows that after the overall analysis the company has received clear picture of the problem areas. The most worrying was connected to material storage handling that might had heavy influence to environment as well as to health and safety in particular leakages, risk of explosion, health hazard, emissions. The preventive measures that can be easily taken may decrease these risks in many times. They are the following: fire system integration; electrical system approval; correct utilization of hazardous wastes; and legal issue studying. Originality/value – The paper presents the practical example of implementation of the Eco‐mapping tool in one small Estonian company. This paper gives an overview of the implementation process, describes the main concerns and suggests possible solutions. The project helps managers and other workers to understand that careful relation to the environment might be favorable from an economic point of view, as compliance with regulation and preparing sustainable principles for future generations.