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trends and future of sustainable development - TransEco

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Conventional Principles:• Prevention principle• Precautionary principle,• Polluter pays principle (extended producer responsibility),• Free trade principle• Principle <strong>of</strong> subsidiarity,• Proximity principle,• Valorisation principle (operationalised as the waste hierarchy)Goal:• Protection <strong>of</strong> human health• Protection <strong>of</strong> the environment• Sustainable use <strong>of</strong> natural resourcesTransitionConventional Principles:• Municipality collects waste• Disposal without risk to public health• Costs borne by households <strong>and</strong> businesses(user pays)• Household <strong>and</strong> business obligated toparticipate• Municipality obligated to receive all wastesupplied for disposalTransition 2Goal:• Protection <strong>of</strong> human health• Protection <strong>of</strong> the environment• Management <strong>of</strong> natural resourcesTransition 3 ?Goal:• Protection <strong>of</strong> human healthTransition 1Pre-1900 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010TimeFigure 1. European Waste Management Transitions (Adapted from Parto et al. (2007))4. Life cycle thinking <strong>and</strong> the waste hierarchy – The current approachAt a strategic level, the life cycle approach is commonly operationalised through LCA <strong>and</strong> applied in adefinitive role to provide an authoritative justification for decision making (Heiskanen 1999). LCA ispredominantly applied to waste management in a comparative capacity, whether it be the comparison <strong>of</strong>waste treatment technologies, the comparison <strong>of</strong> competing waste management strategies (including anew strategy verse the status quo) or the comparison <strong>of</strong> policy instruments (e.g., incineration taxes).A prominent example <strong>of</strong> this comparative application is the Waste Framework Directive (WFD)where LCT is applied in relation to the waste hierarchy:“The following waste hierarchy shall apply as a priority order in waste prevention <strong>and</strong>management legislation <strong>and</strong> policy: (a) prevention; (b) preparing for re-use; (c) recycling;(d) other recovery, e.g. energy recovery; <strong>and</strong> (e) disposal.This may require specific waste streams departing from the hierarchy where thisis justified by life-cycle thinking on the overall impacts <strong>of</strong> the generation <strong>and</strong>management <strong>of</strong> such waste.” (Emphasis added) (Council Directive 2008).In this case, life cycle knowledge based on information from LCAs, both from individual studies orcollective knowledge built upon numerous previous studies, may be used as a test for the departure <strong>of</strong>waste streams from the waste hierarchy. Figure 2 illustrates the current use <strong>of</strong> LCT in the WFD - anapproach used to deviate from the waste hierarchy when life cycle based assessment shows the wastehierarchy not to be valid.219

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