International Review of Waste Management Policy - Department of ...

Republic, Denmark, England and Wales, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the
Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden and Switzerland. In addition, both South
Korea and Taiwan have also implemented minimum recycling standards in recent
years, and several locations within the US also have a minimum recycling standard for
their household waste, including the city of Portland, and the state of New Jersey.
These minimum standards vary in the types and number of materials that must be
source-separated, the way in which the materials must be collected and the way that
they are funded. The main country-specific policy details are discussed in Section
34.2.1.1.
A minimum recycling standard has been implemented in these countries in order to
push waste up the hierarchy, away from landfill, and to increase the recovery of
materials, so reducing the need for primary material consumption. Its implementation
in Switzerland for example is considered “Environmentally sound”, with the use of
secondary aluminium instead of primary aluminium saving up to 95 % of the energy
required to manufacture aluminium from raw materials. 637
34.2.1.1 Country-specific Characteristics
Table 34-1 summarises the key materials that must be collected separately in those
countries that implement recycling mandates. A key source of information for
summarising EU policies was via the European Topic Centre on Resource and Waste
Management (EIONET). 638 Additional references are provided throughout the
document. The main driver behind the majority of separate collections appears to be
the implementation of laws on packaging and associated producer responsibility
measures, which have driven the separate collection of most materials except food
and garden waste. The separate collection of food/garden waste is mainly linked to
the development of compost standards, in order to create sufficient markets through
standardising the products of biological treatment. Specific details for each country
follow.
Austria
The Ordinance on the Separate Collection of Organic Wastes (Law Gazette II no.
68/1992) and the Ordinance on Compost (Law Gazette II no. 292/2001) dictates
that provision is made by the municipality for a separate collection of biowaste (food
and garden waste) from Austrian households, and that the householder also has an
obligation to separately collect and present their biowaste for collection. In addition,
the Ordinances on Packaging (Law Gazette II No. 1996/648 and 1992/646) place
responsibility on producers to ensure that a certain percentage of each type of
packaging material be delivered for recycling –the Altstoff Recycling Austria (ARA)
green dot scheme facilitates a separate household collection of glass, plastics,
637 Federal Office for the Environment (2008) Guide to Waste [Online] (Updated 28 th February 2008).
Available at: http://www.bafu.admin.ch/abfall/01472/index.html?lang=en [Accessed 10 th September
2008].
638 European Topic Centre on Resource and Waste Management [Online],
http://waste.eionet.europa.eu/facts/factsheets_waste/Instruments [Accessed 8th September 2008].
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