Abstract
Treating waste as a resource and the design of a circular economy have been identified as key approaches for resource efficiency. Despite ambitious targets, policies and instruments that would enable a transition from a conventional waste management to an integrated and comprehensive resource management are still missing. Moreover, this will require innovative policy mixes which do not only address different end-of-pipe approaches but integrate various resource efficiency aspects from product design to patterns of production and consumption. Based on the results of a project funded by the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development named “POLFREE—Policy Options for a resource efficient economy”, this paper addresses several aspects of the conceptualization of policy mixes with regard to waste as a specific resource efficiency challenge. The guiding research interest of this paper is the combination of policies necessary to create a full circular economy. In a first step, the present waste policy frameworks, institutions and existing incentives at national level are examined in order to disclose regulatory and policy gaps. Based on this, the second part of the paper describes and analyses specific waste-related resource efficiency instruments with regard to their potential impacts under the constraints of various barriers. Based on the assessment of the country analyses and the innovative instruments, the paper draws conclusions on waste policy mixes and political needs.
Highlights
Waste management focused on ensuring a cheap, reliable and—since the 1970s—environmentally sound disposal of waste [1]
The approach distinguished two pillars: the policy and institutional factors, such as economic incentives and waste programmes assumed to be influencing the technical set-up and infrastructures in the waste sector. Both aspects were analysed with regard to different dimensions and indicators, such as targets (i.e., Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), End-of-Life Vehicles (ELV) targets), the regulatory framework conditions (i.e., the existence of waste prevention programmes, the number of waste management plans or concepts, the existence of specific waste laws, e.g., biogenic waste, the country specific waste charge systems, the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes, and potential Waste Prevention Programme (WPP) instruments), the existence of an agency for waste issues, and further relevant policy instruments
The analysis of the gaps and barriers to the transition from waste management towards an integrated resource management underlines (a) the context sensitivity of incentives structures and (b) the necessity of policy mixes and (c) the coordination of the policy instruments along frequently transnational value chains leading to the generation of waste
Summary
Waste management focused on ensuring a cheap, reliable and—since the 1970s—environmentally sound disposal of waste [1]. Given that a high quality management of waste depends on ambitious and consistent regulatory frameworks, there is obvious need for innovative mixes of policy instruments that help to transform the conventional waste management structures to a resource efficient circular economy: “This implies full systemic change, and innovation in technologies, and in organisation, society, finance methods and policies” [2] Against this background, the guiding question of this paper is how to combine effective policies that contribute to develop a full circular economy. Building theory from case studies is a research strategy to develop theoretical constructs from case-based empirical evidence [6] Against this background, the structure of this paper is based on the analysis of the existing, mainly end-of-pipe focussed frameworks for waste management in ten countries (Section 3), the description and analysis of innovative instruments for an resource efficiency oriented circular economy policy mix (Section 4) and the discussion of the impacts, the effectiveness and the barriers of this policy mix (Section 5). The paper draws conclusions on the effectiveness of the instruments and their interactions
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