engleski

Deposit Refund System as a way to reduce plastic pollution

Deposit refund systems (DRS) showed as a promising tool to reduce waste of different kinds (lead-acid batteries, motor oil, tires, containers, hazardous materials, electronics). The DRS found its primary role in packaging waste management, especially in beverage packaging, where it is applied to reduce littering and ensure sufficient quantities of plastic, metal and glass waste materials for the production of fully recycled packaging. Today, around 40 countries and regions in the world have implemented DRS (and many more are currently considering it). The EU gave a special attention to DRS in a recent EU Plastics Strategy, where national and regional authorities are encouraged to put in place well-designed deposit systems, among other measures, for improving the economics and quality of plastics recycling. DRS in Europe regularly achieve collection rates of 80-90% while systems without deposits achieve collection rates of 40% on average. The market- based DRS principle implies a tax- subsidy approach ; first, a product tax (fee) is initiated that increases the upfront cost of purchasing the container ; second, a subsidy (deposit) is rewarded to the consumer for recycling or properly disposing of the container. The circle is closed when the deposit is returned to the producer/importer of the beverage product. Modern DRS have proven themselves with large amounts of collected and recovered plastic waste packaging (especially PET, and sometimes HDPE) with a small amount of impurities within such (mono-fractionally) collected material, which is a prerequisite for high-efficiency recycling in a closed loop system. The analysis presented in this work showed that the quantity of collected and recycled PET originating from beverage products can be up to 90% (or more) of the PET packaging put to the market. The cost of the system (of establishing and managing DRS) is a very important issue since DRS tend to exhibit high costs if not optimized and run properly. Ideally, the deposit refund system should operate on non-profit basis. Therefore, a number of issues on economic and material sustainability are discussed in this paper. Finally, recommendations and potential risks of a comprehensive DRS are also given.

Plastic waste, packaging waste, deposit refund system, recycling

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