Author(s): Roberta Fernandes de Faria
In 2020, the European Commission adopted its second Action Plan for the Circular Economy, increasing the targets to be met by the member states and encouraging a change in the environmental and economic paradigm - from a linear system to a circular system. As established by the European Union (COM (2020) 98 final), an efficient management of urban waste and its recovery, by cities and the citizens who live in them, contributes to the current transition to a circular economy, and, for this to happen, they need to motivate the selective disposal of urban waste to increase recycling rates. Thus, the polluter pays principle must be applied fairly and effectively, with the use of PAYT (pay as you throw) systems, that is the best way to motivate the selective disposal of urban waste, increasing recycling and promoting the circular economy.
Common Polices in Waste Manegement and in Circular Economy First, we bring here a brief history of European policies and legislation that deal with natural resources and waste: The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, in article 191º, defends that European environmental policies will contribute to the pursuit of the prudent use of natural resources and, the European Parliament, in Decision 1386/2013, warned that the health of the environment results from an economy where nothing is wasted and where natural resources are sustainably managed. The European Council, in the 7th Environmental Action Programme (7th EAP) identified the need to turn waste into resources, and thus the first Action Plan for the Circular Economy (COM (2015) 614 final), which has already been updated in 2020 by the European Commission (COM (2020) 98 final), considered that the way waste is collected and managed can lead to high rates of recycling and raw materials with potential for reinvestment in the economy, being essential to take measures to improve waste management practices to reach the 65% recycling target by 2035.
At the end of 2019, the European Environment Agency published a report entitled The European Environment — state and outlook 2020» (SOER), bringing worrying results, which requires a solution and immediate actions to minimize the unsustainable use of resources, adopting, the European Commission, shortly thereafter, the European Green Deal, to respond to these environmental challenges. Based on a regenerative growth model that gives back to the planet more than it takes from it, this pact outlines the environmental priorities for the coming years and the European Union's ambition to transform its economy with a view to a sustainable future.
The European Green Deal reinforced the circular economy, which is a concept based on the prevention, reduction, reuse and recycling of materials, replacing the end-of-life concept of the linear economy, with circular flows in an integrated process. It represents a key option for the sustainable development, enhancing the efficient use of resources and reducing environmental impacts.
The specific wastes legislation, the Directive 2018/851 EU, determines that to improve recycling, wastes must be collected selectively and not mixed with other wastes or different materials and, in this sense, the Action Plan for the Circular Economy (COM (2020) 98 final) states that high-quality recycling depends on effective selective waste collection.
However, here is the problem: A large part of recycling is associated with the selective collection of common materials from urban waste (glass, paper, metals, plastic) and, despite so many policies to safeguard natural resources and encourage the recycling and the reuse of materials, currently the Europe has low rates of selective collection of urban waste and very far from the proposed targets for 2050, also indicating insufficient recycling.
The policies described above indicate that it is necessary to implement innovative solutions to value materials and recover resources from wastes, in addition to implementing innovative solutions for identification, tracking, separation, prevention and decontamination of wastes contaminated with hazardous substances.
In Europe today, urban waste management systems must be based on principles of environmental sustainability, with a view to promoting the prevention of waste production, its separation and preparation for reuse and recycling, recovery and disposal, but also financial balance, and the costs of the operations necessary for its processing must be reflected in an adequate tariff system.
In Europe Union, the most common waste management pricing model, in which the citizen pays according to water consumption, does not seem fair, legally, and does not encourage the separation of urban domestic waste. So that there is justice and equity in the payment of public urban waste management services provided to citizens, the tendency is for the retribution of services provided to be based on the real value of waste produced.
It is essential that Europe increases the efficiency of selective collection methods and makes tariffs more flexible in accordance with good waste management practices in compatibility with the polluter-pays principle, in order to respond to the new challenges of the circular economy. Thus, the “Pay-as-you-throw” (PAYT) systems apply, in a fair and balanced way, the polluter-pays principle, encouraging the reduction of waste production and encouraging its separation, since the less waste if you produce less, you pay, that is, the tariff for the urban waste management service, paid monthly by end users, is now calculated based on the amount of undifferentiated waste collected. With the PAYT system, citizens pay an amount that varies according to the number of times their container of undifferentiated waste is collected, which means that the less waste there is, the fewer times it will be necessary to collect the container and the lower the payment, encouraging, thus, the separation of waste, its subsequent recycling and contributing to a circular economy [1-15].
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