Weekly newsletter on Circular Waste Management in Africa and OECD countries # 36-2024

South Africa

·?????? Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Dr Dion George says the circular economy has the potential to address some of Africa’s “environment complexities”. More to read: https://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/minister-george-weighs-future-circular-economy-africa

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·?????? ISWA congress will take place next week. More to read: https://iswa2024.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/ISWA-Programme.pdf ?

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France

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·?????? According to the Observatory of the Biomethane Sector, France has just passed the milestone of 700 injection sites in service. Production is now around 13,000 GWh per year. On the eve of the start of the new school year, the French biomethane sector has reached a symbolic milestone. According to figures released by the Open Réseaux-Energies (ODRE) platform, France now has more than 700 biomethane injection facilities in operation. More to read: https://enviropro-salon.com/fr-fr/douai/actualites-methanisation-la-france-passe-le-cap-des-700-sites-en-service

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·?????? In France, the small aluminum and steel pieces of packaging are collected separately and sorted for recycling. This is not easy to do, it needs specific sorting machinery. In 2022, 5 200 metric tons of small aluminum packaging recycled were recycled in 62 recycling centers. Recycling them yields significant energy and CO2 savings : Recycling one metric ton of aluminum saves 95% of energy and 6 metric tons of CO2 equivalent Recycling one metric ton of steel saves 74% of energy and reduces CO2 emissions by 58%. By integrating this category of packaging into recycling, the environmental externalities are lowered. The Metal Project brings together industrial companies, local governments, and national decision-makers committed to the collection and recycling of small everyday aluminum and steel packaging (aluminum coffee capsules, foil seals, lids, fresh cheese and chocolate packaging, small cans, etc.). More to read: https://www.projetmetal.fr/contact-4

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·?????? How the crucial PROs pricing decisions are determined is the topic of this research document. The question is raised by looking at their status (nonprofit or for profit), the degree of ownership by the producers, and the coarseness of pricing depending on the material. The research shows that the complex interplay of budget-balance for the PRO and incentive provisions for the producers is key to address policy questions and provide guidance for the design of EPR programs. The research has demonstrated in a theoretical model that the implementation of EPR with one or several PRO(s) can be economically efficient when the PRO’s responsibility is limited to the pricing of recycling costs. As the PRO bears recycling costs, the government can set up a certain number of rules under which the PRO cannot distort or inflate the costs of recycling that it will pass on to producers. In the model, these rules are : governance by producers or competition between PROs, and fee differentiation per material. In particular, the results are based on assumptions of homogeneity of producers (identical products), and of competitive and ethical waste management operators. To reach the social optimum, the government should tax the remaining environmental costs and set the optimal recycling targets. More to read (starting page 82, chapter 1). More to read: https://theses.hal.science/tel-03612392

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·?????? This research provides the first empirical evaluation of EPR and of a policy instrument fostering the eco-design of packaging. Use data on packaging waste generation and EPR costs of compliance from 25 European countries for four materials with observations from 1998 to 2015 (unbalanced panel).The econometric analysis shows that countries consume less packaging per capita when they impose higher fees on packaging for firms obligated under EPR. However, given its low effect on waste reduction, EPR could be complemented by more ambitious waste prevention policies, e.g. charges or bans (EEA, 2019a), and the promotion of package-free products that are sold loose or in bulk (EEA, 2019b). For instance, the introduction of charges for single-use plastic carrier bags in many European countries has led to a substantial reduction in the number of bags consumed. In more details, the research interprets this finding as evidence of EPR compliance costs being a very small but significant driver of packaging source reduction. This interpretation is based on the assumption that variation in the consumption of packaged products was fully captured by the control variables, the fixed effects, the random trend or the waste lags. Hence, the coefficient estimated may represent an upper bound of the eco-design contribution. On average, over the period (1998-2015) and for the countries and materials considered, an increase of 1 percentage in the material fee decreases packaging material waste per capita by around 0.06 percent. In turn, this implies that decreasing fees increase packaging waste per capita by the same amount. This effect seems stronger and/or more frequently applied to packaging made of plastic. In general, coefficients may hide very large heterogeneities among countries, firms, and products within firms, because of the aggregate characteristics of the data. I find no systematic substitution effects toward other materials due to EPR compliance costs. If policy-makers wish to use the EPR channel to accelerate waste prevention they may increase compliance costs. These costs should still be in accordance with waste management costs, to be considered as advance disposal fees. To this end, compliance costs may be increased through stricter producer responsibility (e.g., full allocation of costs) or stronger re-use and recycling requirements and standards (for a medium-term increase of costs). Alternatively, the public authority could decide to implement an environmental taxation and charge the material social cost. For instance, for a constant elasticity, a 100 percent increase in the price of each material would result in a 6 % decrease in waste per material and per capita (or as much as 10 kg of waste per capita). Policy-makers may also further encourage PROs in their efforts towards research on eco-design and awareness actions for consumers. More to read on chapter 2 starting page 150. https://theses.hal.science/tel-03612392

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·?????? One and a half billion euros. This is the sum paid in 2023 by France to the European Union for not having respected its objectives for treating plastic waste. More to read: https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceinfo/podcasts/le-billet-sciences/traitement-des-dechets-plastiques-la-france-mise-a-l-amende-par-l-union-europeenne-1940809

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·?????? The aim of this paper was to assess whether Extended Producer Responsibility applied to household packaging provides adequate incentives for packaging reduction at source. The answer is no. There is not enough incentive; the EPR fee calculated by the PRO is only covering the economic cost of treating but not the environmental cost. Using data from ADEME, PRO CITEO, CE Delft and WWF, the article shows that EPR fees internalize only 43% of the external cost, which corresponds to a non-internalized cost of close to €900 million per year. To varying degrees, all materials contribute to the deficit. However, steel is the largest contributor ahead of plastic and glass. In addition, the rates applied to the different materials are not consistent with the economic costs of their end of life and their environmental impacts. Thus, the EPR fees paid for glass packaging represents only 12% of its external cost, far behind plastic (63%) and cardboard (62%). The system then leads to eco-design efforts that are too modest and in directions that go against reducing the economic and environmental cost of packaging waste. More to read: https://www.i3.cnrs.fr/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/WPi3-19-CER-01.pdf#:~:text=L%E2%80%99objectif%20de%20cet%20article%20est%20d%E2%80%99%C3%A9valuer%20si%20la%20Responsabilit%C3%A9%20Elargie

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·?????? The BEE software developed by PRO Citeo is intended for manufacturers wishing to assess the environmental impact of their packaging both upstream in terms of packaging production and use and downstream in terms of waste management. The level of detail of the data makes it possible to identify the specific impacts of each material. The environmental impact of products is broken down into five dimensions: contribution to the greenhouse effect, air acidification, eutrophication, water consumption and energy consumption. BEE provides values expressed in physical units: tons of CO2 equivalent for the greenhouse effect, grams of phosphorus for eutrophication, mmol of H+ equivalent for air acidification. A disadvantage of BEE is that it does not take into account plastic pollution at sea (therefore estimates have to be taken from other sources such as WWF). ?BEE software is free and available in English at: https://bee.citeo.com/en-GB/Home/Index#

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·?????? EU has established a framework for the setting of eco-design requirements for sustainable products (ESPR) including the product passport and this every sector of economy starting with the textile and the steel sector. It will be mainstreamed. All products put on the markets, including components and intermediary products, with new product and remanufactured. This will affect the south African importation of goods in the near future. ?More to know: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=OJ:L_202401781

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?EU & Other countries

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·?????? In Brazil, the national solid waste policy has 14 years. Despite the advances, there are still significant issues for most waste pickers, an activity regulated in 2002, to guarantee their professional dignity. In addition to the lack of adequate infrastructure in many regions of the country, which limits the effectiveness of the work of organizations, the category still suffers from non-payment for environmental services provided, one of the determinations of the PNRS. Thus, they have their earnings only with what they receive for the materials sold. In this format, most of the category, whether waste pickers in cooperatives, associations or individuals, have suffered a great economic impact, due to the drop in the values of materials. The closure of the dumps did not advance in a humanized way, although it is a necessary advance for public health and the environment, it did not bring with it the promised social inclusion of waste pickers, leaving significant gaps in terms of decent work, income and quality of life. More to read: https://ancat.org.br/pnrs-faz-14-anos-lei-incluiu-catadores-as-mas-obstaculos-permanecem/

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·?????? Towards an Innovation intensive Circular Economy. Integrating research, industry, and policies. In the economic literature, EPR is considered a second-best approach and responds to an imperfection of downstream markets. In the presence of markets considered “perfect”, recyclers (and repairers) would pay consumers to recover their recyclable (repairable) waste, with a higher price for products with high recyclability (reparability). Consumers would therefore be encouraged to buy goods that are easier to recycle and repair, and would pass this preference upstream to producers of final goods. In reality, consumers most often dispose of their waste for free or via a flat-rate municipal tax. Therefore, the price signal is broken at the consumer level, and in this context, producers are not incentivized by end-of-life costs. EPR is therefore a way to restore the end-of-life price signal of the product directly to the producer.More to read: https://publicatt.unicatt.it/retrieve/e309db6e-7177-0599-e053-3705fe0a55db/UNICATT%20FEEM%20rpt-economiacircolare%20published.pdf

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·?????? Does material circularity rhyme with environmental efficiency? Case studies on used tires in Brazil. The need for? circularity?assessment tools to prevent undesirable effects (e.g. recycling processes requiring more energy) is gaining recognition. The researchers chose?life cycle assessment?(LCA) and the Material Circularity Indicator (MCI) and tested the tools through two case studies?from the tire industry. The Brazilian case proposes three scenarios to process used tires: baseline, retreading?and regrooving. The European case suggests collecting secondary material from end-of-life (EoL) tires to produce recycled content (RC) at 4% and 10% rates. These rates were chosen to illustrate the change in tire performance in the use phase. We propose an approach to discuss MCI and LCA results that identifies four pathways toward or away from the CE goal: coupling, decoupling, trade-off on resources or trade-off on reservoirs. The case studies?reveal that extending lifetime through retreading?and introducing recycled material improves the MCI of a tire but do not necessarily improve impacts on human health and ecosystems. Also, discrepancies in the results between the MCI and the LCA's resource indicator highlight relevant issues for new CE experts seeking to design assessment tools. Even though LCA provides a broader scope than the MCI, it still reflects a relative contribution to environmental sustainability?while the MCI focuses on micro-scale improvements in resource use efficiency.? More to read: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959652618304189#:~:text=We%20chose%20life%20cycle%20assessment%20(LCA)%20and%20the%20Material%20Circularity

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·?????? A revised definition of circular economy by Korhonen et al in 2018 who propose a definition of circular economy that can be the subject of sustainable development: “The circular economy is an economy built from societal production-consumption systems that maximize the service produced from the linear flow of materials and energy nature-society-nature. To do this, it uses cyclical material flows, renewable energy sources, and cascading energy flows. [...] The circular economy limits the rate of flows to a level that nature tolerates and uses ecosystem cycles in economic cycles by respecting their natural reproduction rates.” In the thermoeconomic literature, the economy is a terrestrial subsystem. Thus, circularity cannot be restricted to the economic system. There is no economic system that is completely permeable to the natural environment in which we could use materials without impacting the biosphere. This reality is strikingly illustrated by the example of plastics, which fragment and inexorably leak into the natural environment, even for goods considered durable. More to read?: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0921800916300325#:~:text=Successful%20circular%20economy%20contributes%20to%20all%20the%20three%20dimensions%20of

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·?????? Policymakers should take life cycle assessment (LCA) beyond the industry-imposed straitjacket and use it to inform the design of zero and reusable packaging systems. While independent LCA practitioners can adopt rigorous processes, the method is vulnerable to abuse. Furthermore, LCA is not an alternative approach to the zero waste hierarchy. The two tools are complementary. The zero waste hierarchy prioritizes strategies to prevent, reduce, and reuse packaging. According to consultancy Eunomia, LCA is limited by the questions it seeks to answer: “Ask inappropriate, misleading, narrow, or ill-informed questions and the process will only provide more of the same.” Industry-commissioned LCAs often rely on positive assumptions about plastic, arguing that plastic’s light weight offsets its negative impacts on humans, wildlife, and ecosystems. Some studies are even used to justify the continued expansion of plastic production. But this plea overlooks some important factors. In theory, life cycle assessment takes into account the environmental impact of a product throughout its life. In practice, this varies from one analysis to another, since those who carry it out define its boundaries. Zero Waste Europe has highlighted that the LCA of food packaging often fails to take into account certain important aspects. In particular, the potential toxicity of certain materials, or the impact of leaks into the environment. Excluding factors such as these gives plastic an unjustified advantage. For example, researchers have acknowledged the critical failure of the method to take into account marine pollution. Finally, to truly compare systems such as packaging, we should stop comparing single-use packaging with each other and also include zero waste or reusable packaging systems. Such an approach would help to design a truly sustainable packaging policy. More to read?: https://theconversation.com/plastiques-la-delicate-question-du-cycle-de-vie-des-emballages-150014

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·?????? This article can serve as an input for researchers and practitioners interested in sectoral agreements in Brazil and in developing countries, as well as serve as input for public managers, business sector and other actors concerned with the implementation of reverse logistics of the other segments covered by the Brazilian law. the Brazilian law establishes the shared responsibility principle for the waste management, which implies manufacturers, retailers, government, waste pickers and consumers. This article contributes to advance knowledge in the area by being the first to analyze the first phase of implementation of the ‘Sectoral Agreement of Reverse Logistics of Packaging’ in Brazil, making linkages with the circular economy perspective, and presenting relevant aspects of the agreement after its implementation. We also point out the role of the actors involved in the agreement and the gains obtained for the waste revaluation chain, as well as the main barriers in operational implementations. Mainly considering the particularities related to developing countries, which may include the presence of waste pickers organized in cooperatives or not, the study contributes to the discussion of the social benefits of the circular economy. More to read: https://publications.aston.ac.uk/id/eprint/40409/1/RCR_Paper_final_version_accepted.pdf

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·?????? A report which highlights why solid waste management is crucial to ending plastic pollution, and includes recommendations for UN Plastics Treaty discussions. More to read: https://learn.tearfund.org/en/resources/research-report/solid-waste-management-in-the-un-plastics-treaty

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·?????? SST has developed the Plastic-Free Seas Guidebook to assist the 54 African continental and island states in drawing up their own National and Regional Action Plans to stop plastics from flowing into the environment and entering the seas. More to read: https://sst.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/SST-Plastic-Free-Seas-Guidebook_FINAL.pdf

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Be8 signed a memorandum of intentions with the national association of waste pickers with the aim of promoting the circular economy of Used Cooking Oil (UCO) for its use as raw material in the production of biofuels, generating the social and economic inclusion of waste pickers. More to read: https://www.be8energy.com/en/noticia/be8-signs-a-memorandum-of-understanding-with-the-national-association-of-waste-pickers--ancat--to-recycle-the-use-of-used-cooking-oil

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