Factors Shaping the Recycling Systems for Plastic Packaging Waste—A Comparison between Austria, Germany and The Netherlands

Abstract

Setting up strategies for a sound management of plastic packaging waste (PPW) is becoming increasingly crucial at many levels of the value chain in Europe. After the very first implementation of an extended producer responsibility scheme in Germany in 1991, many EU Countries followed. This resulted in a complex network of schemes that differ from one member state to another. This paper brings together the three latest studies describing the current flows of PPW across the waste value chain from Austria (reference year 2013), Germany and the Netherlands (reference year 2017). With this aim, the models of the three single studies have been adapted to fit into a common model, allowing to perform a comparative analysis. Although with a relatively comparable product market, the three countries have different management systems (e.g., separate collection systems, target sorting products and treatment of residual waste), reflecting different national strategies to achieve the circular economy targets. Recycling rates (in terms of washed milled goods at the output of the recycling process) for the three countries resulted in 23%, 43% and 30% of the total mass of PPW generated in, respectively, Austria, Germany and the Netherlands. The fraction of mixed recycled plastics, relevant for Germany and the Netherlands only, was determined to be one of the major determinants of the differences in recycling rates. Furthermore, the discussion revolves around new political targets that have the potential to contribute to addressing the issue of tradeoff between quantity and quality of recycled plastics placed on the market, with measures such as design-for-recycling and eco-modulation of EPR fees playing a critical role, while also pointing out the aspects that inevitably hinder closed-loop recycling.

A Review of Recent Trends to Increase the Share of Post-Consumer Packaging Waste to Recycling in Europe

“…Five of the articles used the country or national level for their investigation, and eleven city or municipality level. The Netherlands was the country that contained with six the most case studies (Dijkgraaf & Gradus, 2020;Feil et al, 2017;Picuno et al, 2021;Seyring et al, 2016;Thoden van Velzen et al, 2019;Warrings & Fellner, 2019), followed by Italy with five (Bertanza et al, 2021;Del Cimmuto et al, 2014;Romano et al, 2019;Seyring et al, 2016;Warrings & Fellner, 2019), Germany with four (Feil et al, 2017;Picuno et al, 2021;Seyring et al, 2016;Warrings & Fellner, 2019), Austria (Picuno et al, 2021;Seyring et al, 2016;Warrings & Fellner, 2019), Finland (Dahlbo et al, 2018;Seyring et al, 2016;Warrings & Fellner, 2019), Sweden (Rousta et al, 2016;Seyring et al, 2016;Warrings & Fellner, 2019), Spain (Gallardo, Bovea, Colomer, et al, 2012;Gallardo, Bovea, Mendoza, et al, 2012;Seyring et al, 2016) and United Kingdom (Seyring et al, 2016;Wang et al, 2020;Warrings & Fellner, 2019) with three each; Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Portugal (Seyring et al, 2016;Warrings & Fellner, 2019) and Poland with two case studies (Picuno et al, 2021;Seyring et al, 2016). Switzerland (Haupt et al, 2018) as well as all other member states of the E...…”

“…A more often investigated factor that determines the separate collection rate is the collection system, for instance if it involves a deposit-refund system (DRS) for single use beverage containers or not. All studies that investigate DRS agree that it leads to higher separate collection rates than systems without DRS (Dahlbo et al, 2018;Picuno et al, 2021;Seyring et al, 2016;Warrings & Fellner, 2019). However, the case of aluminum beverage cans shows that a sophisticated separate collection system (e.g.…”

Towards Higher Quality of Recycled Plastics: Limitations from the Material’s Perspective

“…Material contamination and degradation can occur throughout the different steps of the plastics value chain, including the waste processing stage. Among the existing literature, the aspect of how and to which extent every single step of the value chain contributes to contaminating and/or degrading the material still remains unexplored [107].…”

Improving the Material and Financial Circularity of the Plastic Packaging Value Chain in The Netherlands: Challenges, Opportunities, and Implications

“…Mechanical recycling refers to operations that aim to recover plastics waste via mechanical processes such as sorting, washing, grinding, and regranulation [5]. The efficiency of the system depends on the technology and there is a significant loss in the process [6]. Additionally, the recycled plastics usually have lower quality and functionality than virgin materials, because the recycling process degrades and contaminates plastic compounds.…”