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

householder/small commercial sector at the point of delivery, with householders
required to purchase sacks to dispose of their remaining ‘residual’ waste. 647
Sweden
Mandatory source separation of paper and packaging (plastic, metals, cardboard,
glass, wood and beverage containers) was introduced in Sweden in 1997. Both the
financial and physical responsibility for this separate collection is placed firmly on the
shoulders of the producers, leaving producers to design the collection systems that
they must provide, as long as they reach the national recycling targets. Hence the
majority of source separation in Sweden is via lower cost bring sites. In addition,
Ordinance (1997:185) on Producer Responsibility for Packaging also requires the
householder to separate packaging materials from other household refuse and to
deliver it to the collection systems provided by the producers.
Switzerland
Under the Technical Ordinance on Waste, the cantons (regions) must try to recover,
as far as possible, the recyclable fractions of municipal waste. Article 6 of the
Ordinance of the Treatment of Waste prescribes the separate collection of the
recyclable fraction by the cantons, and this includes kitchen waste that cannot be
home composted. In addition to kitchen waste, a collection of paper/cardboard, tin,
beverage containers, glass, PET and aluminium is also required, falling under the
Ordinance on Beverage Containers. Household collections of these waste streams are
provided by the local authority at both kerbside and via bring banks. A large part of
the collection system is funded by producer responsibility schemes (both statutory
and voluntary). The Pay-As-You-Throw scheme that exists in the cantons provides the
incentive for the householder to recycle their waste streams.
Taiwan
Taiwan introduced the country-wide mandatory separate collection of recyclables and
food waste in 2006 as part of their ‘Zero Waste Program’. There are currently 14
categories of mandatory recyclables which the municipality must collect and which
the householder is obliged to separate, including steel and aluminium containers,
paper, plastic, small WEEE and textiles. 648 In addition, municipalities must provide for
the separate collection of food waste at the kerbside, with local government currently
subsidised by the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) for providing this
service.
City of Portland, Oregon (USA)
The city of Portland (population approximately 575,000) in Oregon, USA, currently
requires that the waste collection service providers supply weekly kerbside recycling
647 S.D. Lee (2003) Waste Reduction and Recycling Law in Korea, International Environmental Law
Committee - Newsletter Archive 5, February 2003, available at
http://www.abanet.org/environ/committees/intenviron/newsletter/feb03/korea/
648 R. Dobson (2005) Taiwan Sets Sights on Zero Waste Policy, available at
http://www.bullnotbull.com/special/special-2.html.
549
International Review of Waste Policy: Annexes