Post-collection Separation of Plastic Waste: Better for the Environment and Lower Collection Costs?
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Post‑collection Separation of Plastic Waste: Better for the Environment and Lower Collection Costs? Elbert Dijkgraaf1 · Raymond Gradus2 Accepted: 9 July 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
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. Keywords Plastic waste · Recycling · Post separation · Home separation · Cost effectiveness
1 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. The Netherlands is adding a considerable amount to this by demanding that 75% should be recycled in 2020 and that every inhabitant should be allowed to have only 100 kg of unsorted waste per year in 2020 and * Elbert Dijkgraaf [email protected] Raymond Gradus [email protected] 1
Erasmus School of Economics, Tinbergen Institute, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
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Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Tinbergen Institute, VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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E. Dijkgraaf, R. Gradus
limiting this to only 30 kg in 2025. To achieve this goal, separation and recycling of glass, paper/carton, plastic and metals are crucial. In recent decades, the use of plastic packaging has increased substantially and therefore also the efforts to recycle it (Hopewell et al. 2009). For plastic the EU-target for re-use of plastic packaging is 55% by 2030 (EC 2017). Moreover, for plastic (packaging) waste the Netherlands recycled 51% in 2016. The preferred solution in the Netherlands to fulfil this target is separate collection systems at the curbside as this is far more common than post-collection separation. Most municipalities have an advanced system of curbside collection of unsorted waste and recyclables and easily assessable bring locations for bottles, paper and plastics1 (Dijkgraaf and Gradus 2
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