Post-collection Separation of Plastic Waste: Better for the Environment and Lower Collection Costs?

Raymond Gradus,Elbert Dijkgraaf

doi:10.1007/s10640-020-00457-6

Raymond Gradus, Elbert Dijkgraaf

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10640-020-00457-6

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Abstract

The European Union advocates a plastic waste recycling rate of more than 55%. Even for the Netherlands, which has already invested heavily in recycling plastic waste of households, it will still be a challenge to meet this target. The preferred solution to fulfil this target in the Netherlands is implementing separate collection schemes at the curbside, although some municipalities invested in post-separation. We show, based on data for 2013–2014, that post-collection separation is an advisable alternative, with an increased separation of plastic waste compared with home separation. This is even slightly the case if home separation is combined with a unit-based pricing system for unsorted waste and with a frequent door-to-door collection of plastic waste. Moreover, there are indications that the cost effectiveness of recycling plastic waste increases if post separation is chosen. In addition, some claim that unit-based pricing of unsorted waste is important to create an awareness effect to buy less packaging material. However, based on the combination of post separation and unit-based pricing, we have no indication for such awareness effect as the price effect on the amount of plastic waste is insignificantly small.

Highlights

European waste policy focuses on the separation of waste by households
Based on data for 2013 and 2014 for all Dutch municipalities, we investigate in this paper whether municipalities with post separation produce more separated household plastic waste in kilograms
In approximately 30% of municipalities there is a system of only curbside collection of plastic waste, and approximately 20% of Dutch municipalities have a system of only bring locations

Summary

Introduction

European waste policy focuses on the separation of waste by households. According to the EU, 60% of municipal waste should be separated in 2030. Most municipalities have an advanced system of curbside collection of unsorted waste and recyclables and assessable bring locations for bottles, paper and plastics (Dijkgraaf and Gradus 2017). Dutch recycling companies have innovated with infrared and filmgrabber techniques to separate plastics from mixed waste, and these methods seem to be effective Owners of these factories claim that they can sort out more plastic than people do at home. We use recent data from Dutch municipalities to test this claim of more effective post-collection separation of plastic waste, which has not been examined in the literature until now. A sensitivity analysis shows that this conclusion is robust This calculation is based on the mass balance of home-separated plastic waste from households.

Data and Method

Results

A Break‐Even Point for Post Separation Versus Home Separation

Conclusions