Analysis Of Nordic Regulatory Framework And Its Effect On Waste Prevention And Recycling In The Region

At an important time in Nordic Waste Policy, as the 2018 Circular Economy Package makes significant updates to key European Union directives, this work looks back at the Nordic regulatory framework for waste from the 1970s and its effect upon waste prevention and recycling.At an important time in Nordic Waste Policy, as the 2018 Circular Economy Package makes significant updates to key European Union directives, this work looks back at the Nordic regulatory framework for waste from the 1970s and its effect upon waste prevention and recycling.

This book explores an escalating modern-day crisis; managing waste in a sustainable way. The central question posed is whether advancing a circular economy provides a way to shift waste management practices towards more sustainable approaches. It begins with an in-depth analysis of the nature of waste management and the prevailing crisis, followed by a discussion about the circular economy in terms of its requirements and the challenges of implementation. The book then moves on to propose a framework that sets out how to establish the policy changes needed to advance a circular approach to waste management. Next, the book outlines complex issues in multilevel systems for advancing a circular economy through examining the contemporary situation in Belgium and Norway. It ends by bringing together the issues revealed in these case studies and draws insights for governments advocating circular approaches. The book will be a valuable resource to scholars, students, practitioners and policy makers interested in developing more sustainable methods of waste management.

Available online: https://pub.norden.org/temanord2021-539/ The Nordic economies are strongly integrated but have chosen different pathways and climate policy instruments to reduce their climate impact. Therefore, the Nordic economic actors have different incentives, even though they operate in the same integrated markets. This can lead to negative spill-over effects on neighbouring countries.This report presents examples of such negative effects within transportation, waste management, energy production. Following an analysis of these, the report identifies a series of barriers for the countries to avoiding the counterproductive, spill-over effects. The report concludes by summing up recommendations for possible improvements the Nordic collaboration.The report has been prepared by COWI. It has included a desk study, stakeholder interviews and two cross-Nordic workshops to verify the findings and identify Nordic challenges and opportunities

This open access book reflects aims of the Blue Circular Economy (BCE) project, which focused on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) aiming to create value using circular economy concepts related to products and services within fishing gear recycling in the Northern Periphery and Arctic (NPA) area. Cluster establishment and operation were carried out in collaboration with academia, industry and government agencies following a triple-helix approach. Discarded fishing gear constitutes a large part of marine plastics. Preventing future discharge of fishing gear into the ocean is a vital step in combating plastic pollution. Circular economy is one of the tools in the European Green deal, targeting waste minimisation. Closing the loop for waste fishing nets by transferring them to a resource could be a solution for preventing discharge at sea: exploring this opportunity is at the core of this book.

Finland has a strong reputation as a leader in environmental policy and sustainable development. It committed to become carbon neutral by 2035 and to pioneer the world’s first circular economy.

Available online: https://pub.norden.org/temanord2022-542/ Combustion of biomass and incineration of solid waste and sewage sludge are important parts of the energy production and waste management infrastructure in most of the Nordic countries, but they also produce substantial quantities of residual waste in terms of bottom ash, fly ash and flue gas cleaning residues which contain potentially harmful substances in various amounts. Preferably, the ashes and residues should be treated and utilised as part of the Circular Economy. The project provides an overview of the utilisation options, including environmental and treatment requirements, and of the associated technical and regulatory frameworks and practical conditions of utilisation. Compliance of combinations of treatments and applications of ashes and residues with Best Available Techniques (BAT) has been assessed, and seven Nordic BAT candidates have been proposed and described in detail.

Available online: https://pub.norden.org/temanord2022-539/ The environmental impacts of several scenarios for wood waste’s treatment were studied via life cycle assessment (LCA). The scenarios were modelled via both attributional and consequential approaches to LCA. The ALCA results indicate that producing insulation from wood waste appears to be a good alternative to incineration, whereas incineration outperforms the production of all the other recycled products studied (particle board, composite, bioethanol, biochar, and textile fibre). When the substituting products and marginal energy are considered in the CLCA, other recycled products too seem to show good environmental performance relative to incineration. Textile fibre from wood waste is a solid alternative to producing viscose and cotton, and if marginal energy with even smaller environmental impacts than biomass were used, other products could well become compelling alternatives.

Available online: https://pub.norden.org/temanord2021-504/ The background for the project is that EU Commission has introduced new regulations and policies for food waste prevention and monitoring. Sweden and Denmark link their reporting closely to the waste framework directive while Finland and Norway base their most data collection on voluntary reporting. Norway and Finland report on a detailed level and estimate impact like costs and GHG-emissions. All Nordic countries have necessary detail in data that are measured to fulfil the requirements set by the purpose of food waste monitoring program. Halving food waste by 2030 calls for radical changes in the food chain. These radical changes require four dimensions: technology push, societal pull, market pull, and regulatory push. Based on these four dimensions, we have classified measures to reduce food waste into four topics: Policy instruments, changing social norms, nudging and changing practices, and intelligent technology and new products & business models.