"Taiwan has a successful waste sorting and recycling system, with organizations like Tzu Chi promoting environmental sustainability for a long time, and is one of several countries, including Finland, Japan, Switzerland, and Australia, known for their effective recycling practices."

"The countries with the best waste sorting and recycling systems are South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Sweden, and Norway, which are developed countries with high recycling rates. The EU has set waste targets for its member states, and some countries are on track to meet these targets."

The global recycling rate is less than 9%, with only a small percentage of the over 8 billion tons of plastic produced since the 1950s being recycled.

The Hong Kong government will implement the urban solid waste charging system on August 1, 2024, to reduce waste generation and increase recycling rates.

"Russia and Egypt are implementing waste recycling projects."

The European Union has set a recycling target of 55% for municipal waste by 2025.

Finland and Norway have successful deposit return schemes, with high recycling rates of aluminium cans and plastic bottles, making them examples of effective waste sorting and recycling practices.

Kenya has taken significant steps to reduce plastic waste by banning single-use plastic bags in 2017 and all single-use plastic in protected natural sites in 2020.

Brazil is a leader in recycling, with a high rate of recycling aluminum cans and PET bottles, making it a notable example for improving waste sorting and recycling practices.

Germany has implemented a deposit refund system to promote plastic recycling, which has resulted in a 95% recycling rate.

Germany has the highest household recycling rate, with Taiwan being second at over 50% of household resources.

"Taiwan has a successful waste sorting and recycling system, with organizations like Tzu Chi promoting environmental sustainability for a long time, and is one of several countries, including Finland, Japan, Switzerland, and Australia, known for their effective recycling practices."

Title:

Content: Tzu Chi has been promoting recycling and other environmental sustainability in Taiwan for a long time. Based on the circular economy and circular jobs, Tzu Chi International Youth Club hopes to present the Taiwan style and local cases as soon as possible with the help of scholars and experts. This gives the younger generation a better understanding of Taiwan.
According to the organizer, the scope of work and the appearance of the workplace in the circular economy open up new career possibilities for young people who are committed to environmental sustainability and want to exert influence in their work.
This series of thematic discussions and activity initiatives is the first complete introduction in Taiwan, and it is worth more attention in the future.
Feng Yan, director of the Tzu Chi Foundation and a professor of social work at National Taiwan University, said that she has observed that more and more contemporary youth are beginning to attach importance to environmental issues, hoping to exert influence in their careers and become "non-waste youth" who do not produce any waste.
It is hoped that all generations will work together to improve the environment, and will be able to fulfill the vision of Master Shin Yen, who said, "There will be no disaster in the world, and there will be no harm in the world, and every year."
According to an international survey, by 2030, there will be more than 7 million new jobs related to the circular economy. The Netherlands is the country with the highest proportion of circular work in the world. Joel Marsden, a researcher at the Dutch non-profit Circle Economy, who gave a keynote speech at the forum, pointed out that about 100 billion tons of raw materials are invested in the global economy every year. Everything is ultimately wasted.
If you double the 8.6% cycle rate, you can control global warming below 2 degrees and slow climate change.
# New # Taiwan # Global # Cycle # Career

"The countries with the best waste sorting and recycling systems are South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Sweden, and Norway, which are developed countries with high recycling rates. The EU has set waste targets for its member states, and some countries are on track to meet these targets."

Title:

Content: Circular Economy : 18 EU Member States at risk of missing waste targets

Which countries are at risk of missing the 2025 targets for preparing for re-use and recycling of municipal and all packaging waste and the 2035 landfill target? The European Commission answered this question in a recently published early warning report. But first the good news. Nine Member States are on track to meet the 2025 targets: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Slovenia.

And just as a reminder, these are the targets set out in the Waste Framework Directive and the Directive on packaging and packaging waste we are talking about:

  • 55% recycling and preparing for reuse of municipal waste;
  • 65% recycling for total packaging waste;
  • and material-specific packaging waste recycling targets (75% for paper and cardboard, 70% for glass, 70% for ferrous metals packaging, 50% for aluminium, 50% for plastic and 25% for wood).

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Bad news for some countries

And now the bad news: 18 Member States are at serious risk of missing one or both of the 2025 targets.

Estonia, Finland, France, Ireland, Latvia, Portugal, Spain and Sweden are at risk of missing the municipal waste target.

Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania and Slovakia are at risk of missing both the municipal waste and the total packaging waste targets for 2025.

In addition, some countries continue to landfill most of their municipal waste and are likely to miss the 2035 landfill target. The Commission is making recommendations to these Member States, building on the ongoing financial and technical support provided to improve waste management performance. These recommendations cover a wide range of actions: reducing non-recyclable waste, increasing re-use, promoting separate collection, developing treatment capacity for sorting and recycling, improving governance, using economic instruments and raising awareness.

"Implementing waste reduction and recycling measures on the ground is key for our circular economy transition. Turning waste into resources helps us on the way to climate neutrality, increases the security of supply of energy and raw materials, and creates local jobs and innovation opportunities. The early warning report allows us, in close cooperation with the Member States, to detect shortcomings, take action ahead of the deadlines for meeting the targets, and share best practices in sound waste management," said Virginijus Sinkevičius, Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries

Waste generation on the rise

On average, Europeans generate 530 kg of municipal waste per person per year (waste from households and similar waste from businesses). Although it is increasingly recycled and less landfilled, municipal waste (MSW) is still one of the most complex waste streams to manage. In the EU, about 50% of MSW is recycled or composted and 23% is landfilled. The amount of packaging waste generated is constantly increasing. Between 2013 and 2020, the amount of packaging waste generated in the EU will increase by 15% to almost 80 million tonnes. Around 64% of packaging waste is now recycled, although this varies by material. More than 75% of paper, cardboard and metal packaging is recycled, but less than 40% of plastic packaging - a problem in most EU countries, many of which are at risk of missing the material-specific target for plastic packaging waste recycling.

The early warning report allows us, in close cooperation with the Member States, to detect shortcomings, take action ahead of the deadlines for meeting the targets, and share best practices in sound waste management.
Virginijus Sinkevičius, Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries

Significant differences between Member States

Looking at the report, one thing is clear: There are considerable differences in waste management performance across the EU. Some countries still have a long way to go to meet the targets agreed in EU legislation and further reforms are needed, in particular to ensure the treatment of biowaste, which accounts for a third of municipal waste, to ensure separate collection of waste - a prerequisite for recycling - and to improve data quality. However, most EU countries have introduced or are in the process of introducing waste reforms to improve recycling rates, some of which are expected to bear fruit in the coming years.

The results were also influenced by external factors, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which reduced or stopped separate collection in some countries. The recent rise in energy prices is also having a negative impact on recycling activities.

The early warning report builds on the Environmental Implementation Review, which had already identified problems with the implementation of EU waste legislation. In particular, almost 2000 illegal or substandard landfills are still operating in the EU, representing a significant source of pollution and greenhouse gases and a missed opportunity for the recovery of secondary raw materials.

The global recycling rate is less than 9%, with only a small percentage of the over 8 billion tons of plastic produced since the 1950s being recycled.

Title:

Content: An emerging domain of research shows that plastic consumption and pollution harms human health — particularly for the world’s lower-income communities.

This builds on a growing field of research revealing the dangers of plastic on the environment — especially marine ecosystems. Of the over 8 billion tons of plastic produced since the 1950s, less than 10 percent has been recycled.

“Plastic threatens human health at every stage of its production pipeline — from the extraction of the fossil carbon, oil and gas, that is plastic’s main constituent, to its manufacture, use and disposal,” said Philip Landrigan, director of the Global Observatory on Pollution and Health and lead author of the Lancet Commission on pollution and health.

The connection between plastics and health was also highlighted in Africa by researchers from Stanford and the Technical University of Mombasa. After decades of hunting for mosquito-borne viruses in coastal Kenya, they received one of their greatest tips from a group of elementary schoolchildren.

The scientists had been trying to uncover the breeding grounds of mosquitoes causing a number of illnesses that regularly sicken over half of Kenya’s coastal population — including dengue, chikungunya and others that can cause severe fevers, headaches, rashes, joint pain, life-threatening bleeding and death.

With these diseases on the rise, researchers were teaching schoolchildren about the life stages and habitats of insects that serve as vectors. On a homework assignment to find immature forms of mosquitoes in their communities, the children discovered something unexpected — disease-carrying mosquitoes breeding in nests of plastic trash around their homes.

“We were astounded,” said Stanford pediatrician and researcher Desiree LaBeaud, who led the project. “The children’s discovery helped us realize that the majority of mosquitoes were breeding in plastic trash and other containers littering streets and people’s yards.”

Environment and health

It made sense: Plastic is watertight and can take hundreds of years to break down, creating a perfect habitat for mosquitoes. This groundbreaking discovery built on other recent findings connecting environmental degradation to human health — including the health effects of wildfire smoke, heat stress and the risk of pandemics caused by deforestation and other ecological disruptions. With climate change driving an increase in mosquito-borne illnesses, the need to limit their breeding grounds felt more important than ever to the researchers.

“We realized that we needed to look far beyond just treating the sick,” said LaBeaud, who is senior author on an upcoming publication in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases on the topic. “To stop these diseases at their source, we needed to tackle the plastic problem.”

Plastics are closely tied to climate change, which the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) has recognized as “one of the most pressing existential threats to human health,” in the words of NAM President Victor J. Dzau. Plastics use the same amount of oil as the entire aviation industry — and are expected to more than triple in their oil consumption in the next 30 years.

Moreover, the pollution caused by petrochemical plants — which are most often in lower-income settings — threaten the health of communities. “Plastic manufacture is inequitably distributed, with virtually all plastic production facilities located either in low- and mid-income countries or in poor and minority communities within high-income countries,” Landrigan pointed out.

After plastic products are released into the environment, they can break down into smaller pieces of plastic known as microplastics. While more research is needed, some findings suggest these virtually ubiquitous tiny plastic particles — that have been found in human blood — have the potential to disrupt immune and endocrine systems, damage organs, cause inflammation, increase cancer risk and possibly affect pregnancy outcomes.

Disposing of plastic waste also poses challenges. In places such as sub-Saharan Africa, as much as three quarters of all waste is burned, releasing toxic compounds and carcinogens into the air.

The infectious-disease research in coastal Kenya is a critical new dimension. Plastic pollution is exacerbating an already dire public health challenge — over 50 percent of people in coastal Kenya are regularly exposed to dengue and chikungunya, and at least 10 percent of febrile illness in the region is probably because of undiagnosed mosquito-borne viral infections. This pattern seems to be widespread — similar findings have emerged in South America and Asia.

The problem is not only the potentially deadly diseases themselves. With symptoms for some illnesses such as chikungunya lasting for up to months or years, getting sick could also mean missing school and days of work — and communities being kept in poverty, creating what some scholars call the “disease-poverty trap.”

“The case of plastics vividly illustrates how the industrial practices of the high-income world are intimately tied to the health and development of lower-income communities around the globe,” LaBeaud said. “Maintaining a healthy planet requires thinking carefully about how we produce, consume, and waste — knowing that downstream health impacts, especially on marginalized communities, won’t always be immediately apparent.”

Fighting a growing problem

Combating the plastic pollution in Kenya and other African countries involves addressing both exported recycling from high-income countries and an influx of new plastic products, especially single-use materials.

Kenya, along with 95 other countries, received more than 1 billion pounds of foreign plastic waste from U.S. exporters in 2019 alone. This roughly equates to a line of 18-wheeler semi-trucks full of plastic trash backed up for about 350 miles, stretching nearly the entire length of Florida. And it’s not just plastic trash imports — Nairobi also saw a quadrupling in plastic consumption over the same 25-year period that its population only tripled.

In response, Kenya banned single-use plastic bags in 2017 and banned all single-use plastic in protected natural sites in 2020. This is part of a larger movement to reduce plastic waste in Africa. The African Union, for example, has set a goal that 50 percent of waste used in African cities be recycled by 2023.

Communities across Africa have also started exploding with locally designed solutions — exploring opportunities to rethink waste management and recycling in ways that also support local economies.

For example, LaBeaud and Kenyan partners launched a nonprofit organization, HERI-Kenya, to engage policymakers, communicate the plastic-disease connection, and build business opportunities that allow for more locals to make a living collecting and recycling trash. This, they hope, can build the foundation for what is known as a circular economy for plastics, where the reuse and recycling of materials create a sustainable system of zero waste.

“When we remove plastic litter, we not only improve local environments — we improve human health, beautify our community, support local entrepreneurs and boost tourism,” said Francis Mutuku, a researcher at the Technical University of Mombasa and LaBeaud’s long-term collaborator. “Everyone stands to gain.”

Yet, despite the will to act, activists and lawmakers in Africa have found that the solution is not as simple as recycling or banning plastics.

With fossil fuels increasingly falling out of favor, actors such as the American Chemistry Council (ACC) and large oil companies are reportedly moving toward a new strategy, opting to turn oil into plastics and distribute them to external markets, including countries in Africa. While the ACC has denied efforts to undermine bans on single-use plastics in places such as Kenya, many of the companies it represents are still expanding their production and distribution of plastics.

Oil and chemical companies were reportedly planning to spend an estimated $400 billion on expanding plastics production as the biggest anticipated driver of oil demand — up to 95 percent by some forecasts — from 2020 to 2024, according to a 2020 Carbon Tracker analysis. From reporting around that same time, almost 350 new chemical plants were being planned in the United States alone.

In 2019, Chevron Phillips Chemical, a joint venture partially owned by Chevron, called petrochemical collaborations with Qatar Petroleum, now called QatarEnergy, “some of the safest and most successful assets in Chevron Phillips Chemical’s global portfolio” — including a new $8 billion project to develop a Gulf Coast petrochemical plant.

“From delivering fresh water and preventing food waste to supplying medical products used every day in hospitals worldwide, our materials help people live prosperous and healthy lives,” Chevron Phillips Chemical said in an emailed statement.

Chevron’s 2021 annual report noted that petrochemical projects on the Gulf Coast and in Qatar were ongoing. In a March presentation to investors, a Chevron executive said that demand and margins for petrochemicals are expected to continue to grow over the long term.

“With growing recognition around the negative health and environmental consequences of plastics, we do need to ask — why produce more?” Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health Director Michele Barry said. “Where are these new chemical plants being built, and which communities are the intended recipients of these products?”

Beyond recycling

Recycling is one of the most talked-about solutions for the plastics crisis.

“ACC supports scaling up advanced recycling,” said Stewart Harris, senior director of Global Plastics Policy at the ACC, in an email, referring to recycling technology that breaks down used plastics into their basic building blocks to create new, often reusable, products. “Since 2017, 70 advanced recycling projects representing over $7 billion in investments have been announced or are already operating.”

A wide range of companies have begun to invest in improved waste collection and recycling — for example, Chevron Phillips Chemical’s investments in circular plastics and Coca-Cola’s PETCO campaign in southern and eastern Africa.

“We encourage responsible disposal of PET packaging and recycling of the same to create a circular economy, which has an economic impact on those involved throughout the recycling value-chain,” said Scott Leith, a spokesperson for Coca-Cola, who acknowledged that the challenge of plastic waste requires multiple approaches.

While some local community organizations, such as Clean Up Kenya, have criticized Coca-Cola’s approach, advocates have noted that initiatives such as this one could allow simultaneous improvements in waste infrastructure, financial incentives for collectors and worker safety.

“Partnerships between governments and the private sector are critical to achieving universal access to waste collection, which forms the foundation of a circular economy,” said Harris, in an emailed statement. Other groups such as the Alliance to End Plastic Waste are also trying to engage a variety of companies and organizations to accelerate community-engaged solutions.

Yet researchers and policymakers have pointed out that recycling is no silver bullet, because of limitations in recycling capability and the environmental costs of producing plastics in the first place.

Moreover, according to a recent Reuters analysis, plastic recycling itself is forestalled by ongoing production: “Less than 10% of plastic is recycled, partly because new plastic produced by the oil industry is so plentiful and cheap.” For context, the $7 billion investment in recycling cited by the ACC is less than 2 percent of the $400 billion Carbon Tracker’s 2020 analysis ascribed to expanding upstream plastics production.

Kenyan activists, including Clean Up Kenya, are calling for more comprehensive upstream solutions — including banning single-use plastic bottles overall.

A 2020 report by SYSTEMIQ frames plastic collection and recycling as just one dimension of a strategy to reduce 80 percent of plastic pollution by 2040. Other critical channels of action noted in the report include reducing plastic consumption, substituting materials, redesigning products, securely disposing of the near-quarter of plastic that cannot be recycled — and, particularly relevant to Kenya’s plastic challenges, reducing “waste exports into countries with low collection and high leakage rates by 90%.”

“There is an urgent need to simultaneously rein in plastic production and use in countries at every level of income,” Landrigan said.

In line with this, the United Nations Environment Assembly agreed on March 2 to begin writing a global treaty that would restrict the expansion of plastic use. Industry members such as Coca-Cola and the ACC have signaled support for such a treaty in emailed and online statements, saying it would provide needed certainty to industries.

At the same time, some nongovernmental organizations have expressed concern about the treaty’s lack of global regulations. The ACC’s Harris has said his organization does not support overall caps on plastic production, contending that plastics play a necessary role in providing critical medical services. Health and environmental researchers, however, worry about the enabling of ongoing petrochemical expansion — and the health risks this brings.

“We can’t recycle our way out of our global plastic problem,” Barry said. “Without a fundamental reimagining of global industrial practices, we will continue to see dire impacts on the climate, the planet and our health.”

Erika Veidis serves as the planetary health program manager for the Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health, where she leads the Action Lab for Planetary Health, a program focused on moving Stanford environmental and health research to solutions.

Jamie Hansen serves as communications manager for the Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health, helping to amplify the work of the center and its fellows through storytelling and multimedia communications.

The Hong Kong government will implement the urban solid waste charging system on August 1, 2024, to reduce waste generation and increase recycling rates.

Title:

Content: Waste Levy in many parts of the world urges public to pay attention to waste reduction
February 03, 2024 12: 58
Eastern Network Television
More News Clips
Ms Ho called for reducing waste generation and increasing recycling rates.
The Hong Kong Government has delayed the implementation of municipal solid waste charges until August 1 this year. The Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Promotion Council, Dr Ho Wai-ping, said today (3) that the waste charging system has been widely implemented in many parts of the world and has had some success. Charges and recycling system.
She believes that each area has different garbage bags and recycling bins, residents need to pay the corresponding fees according to the type and size of garbage, and also encourage residents to carry out waste separation and recycling at home.
In 2022, the per capita disposal of municipal solid waste in Hong Kong landfills reached 1.51 kg per day, compared with the daily disposal of many foreign cities of less than 1 kg, so the amount of waste in Hong Kong is quite high.
The waste charging system encourages the public to reduce waste generation and increase recycling rates. This will not only help reduce the burden on the environment, but also promote the sustainable development of the recycling industry and create more green jobs.
She believes that when people need to pay for their own waste, they will pay more attention to their own consumption patterns and actively strive to reduce waste generation.
She added that the implementation of waste charging also faces some difficulties and challenges, such as public understanding and acceptance, just like when you travel to other areas, you have to take away the waste produced, or do a good job of recycling.
What does it mean that the public may think that the government is just collecting extra revenue, but the waste is never automatically sent to the landfill, and it takes some procedures and a lot of resources to carry out, she pointed out that waste reduction is actually very simple, as long as the public actively do a good job of clean recycling, take "green in the area", do not have to pay for waste, and can also exchange for green reward points for daily necessities.

"Russia and Egypt are implementing waste recycling projects."

Title:

Content: Global Garbage Disaster: Five Treasures to Protect Your Life ｜ Chen Shi-na
Author: Chen Shi-na
Published: Updated:
Food box, coffee cup, hand shake drink cup such as a part of our life, produced a large amount of plastic waste.
Every year, June 5 is World Environment Day, and solutions to plastic pollution were the focus last year, with the world producing 400 million tons of plastic waste each year, of which less than 10% is recycled.
The top three producers of plastic waste per capita are the United States (130 kg per person per year), the United Kingdom (98.7 kg per person per year) and South Korea (88.1 kg per person per year).
Last year, the per capita daily solid waste disposal in Hong Kong was about 1.51 kg, of which plastic waste accounted for about 20%, that is, more than 100 kg per minute in a year.
Bulk plastic waste from bottled drinks
Some figures paint an alarming picture of pollution.
The world ’ s top four beverage manufacturers, including Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nestlé and Unilever, produce more than 500,000 tonnes of plastic pollution per year in six developing Chinese homes, enough to cover 83 football fields per day.
In addition to the plastic waste that is about to flood us, electronic waste from small toys and appliances to 3C is also a time bomb. In 2022, the total global electronic waste reached a record high of 62 million tons, and only 22% of it is properly recycled. Up to 82 million tons, the future is in jeopardy.
On 27 May, the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Cheuk Wing Hing, and the Secretary for Environment and Ecology, Mr Tse Chun-huan, attended a joint meeting on waste levies at the Legislative Council.
After the meeting, Tse Chin-huan was asked whether he wanted to be accountable for stepping down, but he did not respond, while Cheuk Wing-hing replied that Tse Chin-huan did his best and that the Government still supported his work and practices. (photo by Wong Hao-him)
Waste production is much higher than recycling
UN scientist Bud said: "The growth rate of e-waste production is five times the growth rate of recycling, according to this trend, in the war against e-waste, human beings are losing."
And about 800 million kilograms of second-hand electronic goods each year, like a garbage tsunami, are rushing from rich countries to developing countries, causing serious environmental damage.
These warning signs of pollution are not far away.
After years of fighting over the garbage levy, the Hong Kong government decided to put it on hold indefinitely.
This weak and impotent move has made the environmentally conscious Hong Kong people even more reluctant to recycle garbage.
Why not take a look at how plastic waste is recycled in Switzerland, where people don ’ t have to pay for items that can be recycled.
Local supermarkets are equipped with recycling stations, and the store that sells the product is responsible for recycling. People are used to returning recyclable plastic, batteries, tubes, filters, etc. to the store for recycling the next time they shop.
This kind of convenient service has resulted in a high recovery rate in Switzerland.
At present, there are about 53,000 R-PET PET bottle recycling stations in China, and the recovery rate is as high as 82%.
If people bring their own tableware, they can reduce at least five pieces of plastic.
(photo by Cheng Tze-feng)
For the general public, the best support is to practice the "five treasures", including lunch boxes, cutlery, water jugs, green bags and handkerchiefs. Try to use less or even no disposable plastic or paper products, the other is to leave no traces (garbage), and the more fundamental approach is to change ideas and habits from the source to remove unnecessary consumption.
Multinational groups also need to work, enterprises in the packaging of goods, towards the direction of "less plastic", "decomposable", in order to achieve immediate results.
Have a cup of Mocha Chennai.
Introduction: From media to corporate communications, travel through the media, real estate, financial and medical industries, and experience the changes of the world.
Disclaimer: The above content only represents the author ’ s personal position and views, does not represent any position of Hong Kong 01, and Hong Kong 01 cannot verify the authenticity, accuracy and originality of the above content.
In addition, the above is a personal research sharing, and does not represent the position of any third-party organization, nor is it any investment advice or persuasion. Readers should use their own independent thinking skills to make investment decisions.

The European Union has set a recycling target of 55% for municipal waste by 2025.

Finland and Norway have successful deposit return schemes, with high recycling rates of aluminium cans and plastic bottles, making them examples of effective waste sorting and recycling practices.

Title:

Content: Menu Close

Scottish bottle deposit scheme to be blocked – but evidence from Europe suggests it’s the way forward

Unrecycled drink containers are a huge problem in the UK. A survey by Planet Patrol, a non-profit organisation, found that the drinks industry was responsible for more than a third of the litter found in the UK in 2020 and 2021. The items included plastic and glass bottles, metal drinks cans, single-use cups and lids.

This is a concern. Litter takes years to degrade, causing harm to wildlife and habitats, and cleaning it up is expensive. Street cleaning costs UK taxpayers an estimated £1 billion each year.

The Scottish government has proposed a deposit return scheme. People will pay a 20p deposit when they buy a drink in a single-use container, which they get back when the empty bottle or can is returned. Scottish drinks containers would also need to be specially labelled and tracked.

But the scheme is under threat. The UK government is unlikely to agree to the trade exemption needed to enable trade rules in Scotland to differ from the rest of the UK. And critics argue that a deposit return scheme will be difficult for smaller retailers in an already competitive sector due to the costs of handling returns and registering with the scheme.

However, similar schemes in other European countries have prevented huge volumes of litter from entering the environment. These deposit return schemes offer insight into how effective a measure they can be and provide a possible route for implementation in the UK.

Evidence from Europe

In Finland, a deposit return system for glass bottles was introduced in the 1950s and continues today, having included plastic drinks containers for the past 20 years. The scheme is operated entirely by the private sector, with 5,000 plastic container-return machines located across the country in shops, hotels, restaurants, offices and schools.

Each time a person buys a drink in a bottle or a can, they pay a 15 to 40 cent deposit, depending on the material the container is made out of. The containers are then recycled or the materials are reused on their return.

Almost every bottle and can in Finland is recycled as a result of the scheme. In 2020, Finnish residents recycled 94% of aluminium cans (out of 1.4 billion sold) and 92% of plastic bottles (out of 530 million). By contrast, just 82% and 57% were recycled in the UK respectively.

Norway has achieved an even more impressive recycling rate of 97%. Norway’s deposit return approach is instead supplemented with an environmental tax imposed on bottle producers. The tax is NOK 6.46 (£0.50) per unit of metal and glass and NOK 3.91 (£0.30) for plastic items. To avoid the tax, producers must recycle more than 95% of the containers they produce.

Plastic bottles usually end up being “downcycled” into other items, like fleece materials. But the tax has encouraged producers of plastic bottles in Norway to make bottles easier to recycle by using more uniform and less contaminated materials. Efforts have included using approved bottle tops and glue and labels that are easier to remove. The quality of recycled plastic in Norway is now so high that recycled bottles can be made into new bottles.

Plastic recycling schemes in Europe have also delivered social benefits. The Finnish system allows people to choose to collect their deposit or donate it to charity. In Berlin, those not inclined to return their bottles to the store can leave them under bins for others to collect and claim the reward.

Public acceptance

The success of a deposit return scheme largely depends on what happens to the item once it is returned. Success is not based on economic viability alone. Any deposit return scheme needs to be acceptable to the people who run and use it.

Cost-benefit analysis of two separate deposit return schemes (recycling and reuse) for plastic food trays in Sweden found that the costs are greater than the benefits for recycling, but not for reuse. If you consider the costs involved in packaging, washing and the recycling process, then a return scheme may work best if the item is reused.

In Scotland, concerns about how the scheme will run and its real benefit are chipping away at the confidence of the public and drinks retailers. Research finds that many people in Scotland are unaware of how the deposit return scheme would operate and why it is necessary. Some of the study’s participants even perceived the refund charge as another form of taxation imposed by the Scottish government.

Communication plays a critical role. A different study, which explored the public acceptance of a deposit return scheme in Catalonia, Spain, revealed that the way a scheme is presented to users and how much information is given influences how it is perceived. More information (given over the phone) tended to yield a more positive viewpoint.

Clearly, more information is required for Scotland’s recycling scheme to be accepted more widely.

If designed correctly, deposit return schemes can encourage recycling by raising the value of plastic waste. Recycling and reuse schemes are also made more technically and economically viable if backed up with tax incentives.

But the barrier facing the adoption of a deposit return scheme in the UK is a lack of uniformity. We should not be asking if Scotland should adopt a scheme or not. Instead, plans for the rest of the UK to adopt this approach should be accelerated to get the whole of the UK on the same page.

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Kenya has taken significant steps to reduce plastic waste by banning single-use plastic bags in 2017 and all single-use plastic in protected natural sites in 2020.

Brazil is a leader in recycling, with a high rate of recycling aluminum cans and PET bottles, making it a notable example for improving waste sorting and recycling practices.

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Out Of Town Visitors

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Quarter till three, time to back in the pickups at the Keep Alliance Beautiful Recycling Center. Stepping out the door, I see someone who needs the space first: small red SUV, number 69/Dawes County plates. Yep, the lady from Crawford who returns whenever she has a full load.

We lift animal feed bags stuffed with sorted materials out of the back. Some are set aside for later, others dumped to be filled again for the next trip. The focus is always unloading the vehicle quickly and efficiently while checking whether there are any questions or if they need any boxes or bags back.

Today, our dedicated recycler from up north brought two passengers curious about our operation. She introduced her in-laws who were visiting from Brazil. Her mother-in-law asked a few questions as her father-in-law snapped a photo or two on his cell phone. I described what we recycle here in Alliance along with the volumes KAB handles on an annual basis and where everything goes. A cell phone handled much of the translating. Tell the device what to say in English and a couple seconds later the phone repeats the same sentiment (I assume) in Portuguese.

Telling somebody new about the recycling aspect of KAB is always a fulfilling experience. When the opportunity happens at the recycling center, they can see first hand the next step for whatever was dropped off from cardboard to cans or bottles. There is often a greater sense of involvement when you see more of the process.

The couple from Brazil was impressed with what happens to their daughter-in-law’s dropoffs. Later, I realized I had missed an opportunity to ask about recycling in their community. I admit that my focus is usually on how we gather, sort and process material at KAB. Recycling and environmental issues in Nebraska are next. I consider the national picture with a broader brush and rarely think about how other countries tackle the same challenges.

Global environmental news, more often, is about an overall phenomenon like climate change that affects everyone. However, Brazil has been prominent for decades due to deforestation in the vast Amazon rainforest. The amount of carbon dioxide these trees take in is key when addressing the amount of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. On other environmental issues, Brazil rates higher:

Brazil is the leader in the recycling of aluminum cans and PET bottles, at over 98 percent (www.aventuradobrasil.com)

The country has over 46 percent of its energy from renewable sources (www.weforum.org)

I would like to see nations share methods of their environmental successes and do more to combat challenges. Brazil gains more than twice as much of its energy from renewables than the United States. Of more interest in my arena, I’d like to know how it is possible to recycle almost all of the PET bottles and aluminum cans consumers empty. Is it because they value the environment more or is there a financial incentive to turn them in?

Next time, I’ll make sure to ask new visitors more about how they keep their community beautiful.

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Germany has implemented a deposit refund system to promote plastic recycling, which has resulted in a 95% recycling rate.

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Which is more effective for incentive discounts and price increases?
【 Author = Editorial Department 】
After the United Nations launched the "2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)" in 2015, the global consensus on sustainable development has gradually been formed and actively promoted.
In 2022, countries successively released the latest plastic reduction policies, Canada's single-use plastic ban will take effect in December; China announced that it will phase out the use of plastic bags by the end of 2022; India also announced that it will ban, produce, import and sell 19 "single-use plastic" products, including washing tableware, straws, candy box film packaging and so on.
In Taiwan, since July 1, 2022, the "Restriction on the Use of One-Time Drink Cups and Implementation Methods" has also been officially launched, requiring beverage stores, chain stores and other businesses to provide customers with at least NT $5 discount for their own environmental cups.
Since 2002, Taiwan has implemented the first plastic restriction policy: restricting the use of plastic bags and plastic washing-free utensils, and banning plastic bags with a thickness of less than 0.06 mm, and the road to plastic reduction has been 20 years.
In the past 20 years, from plastic bags, straws, to disposable drink cups, plastic reduction action continues to expand, for the latest disposable drink cup plastic limit new law, how is the implementation of other countries?
Most of the plastic waste comes from advanced countries, and the United States produces 105 kilograms of plastic waste per capita.
According to a study in Science Advances, Volume 6, Issue 44, published in 2020, the top three countries in terms of per capita plastic waste production in 2016 were the United States, the United Kingdom and South Korea.
The United States produces 105 kilograms of plastic waste per capita per year, which is equivalent to using 4,038 empty 600cc plastic bottles a year.
The United Kingdom and South Korea followed closely behind each other with 99 kilograms and 88 kilograms of plastic waste per capita per year.
It is worth mentioning that although Germany is ranked fourth, it is the country with the highest recycling rate of plastic packaging, and the recycling rate of plastic packaging in 2016 has reached an astonishing 99.4%.
US states have different plastic reduction policies and attitudes.
With such a staggering amount of plastic waste production, the United States is not doing nothing.
For example, the United States of Hawaii and Honolulu banned the provision of plastic bags and disposable tableware for shopping on January 1, 2021; New Jersey did not actively provide plastic straws from November 2021; California passed a new law in July 2022, requiring California to ensure a 25% reduction in single-use plastic by 2032, and requiring that at least 30% of plastic products sold or purchased in California be recyclable by 2028.
Although many parts of the United States have successively legislated to curb the use of plastic, but in view of the different regulations in the United States, there is a gap in support for environmental protection and plastic reduction, and it is difficult to implement plastic reduction related policies nationwide.
Britain's "latte tax" policy fails to impose taxes to reduce consumer willingness
In the United Kingdom, which is the runner-up in the production of plastic waste, the average British people use 7 million disposable coffee cups a day, and less than 1% of them are recycled.
On 5 January 2018, the Environmental Monitoring Committee of the UK Parliament proposed a "latte levy" of £0.25 per cup of disposable coffee, with a target of 100% recycling of disposable coffee cups by 2023, and a total ban on the use of disposable coffee cups if the target is not met by 2023.
The paper cup alliance, an environmental group that supports paper cup recycling, believes that the tax will affect consumers' willingness; local companies also believe that the government's policy of plastic restrictions is chaotic and does not solve the problem of disposable paper cups can not be recycled, which can be said to be the cause of the problem.
Coffee paper cups are difficult to recycle because the paper cups are not made of pure paper, and the inner layer has a coating (PE or PP material), so coffee paper cups cannot be recycled at a standard recycling plant.
Because of the complexity of the recycling process and the fact that there are only three recycling sites in the UK that can handle special materials, recycling is not easy, even if the tax is imposed, it cannot strengthen recycling.
Germany ’ s long-term incentive system for recycling drives up recycling rates
In Germany, as early as 2003, the implementation of the "return guarantee", people in the supermarket to buy bottled drinks need to pay extra deposit, glass, plastic materials of small beverage packaging and aluminum cans will charge 0.25 euros per deposit, and for the capacity of more than 1.5 liters of packaging containers, each 0.5 euro deposit will be returned as a mechanism to encourage recycling.
In German supermarket chains, there are automatic recycling machines for empty bottles.
Consumers can put a complete PET bottle that meets the specifications into the recycling machine and collect the deposit at the counter with the receipt.
The “Refund Margin ” beverage bottle recycling system enabled Germany to achieve an impressive 95% recycling rate in 2018.
There are automatic empty bottle recycling machines in German supermarkets. As long as the consumer puts the full empty bottle recycling machine into the machine, he can claim the deposit with the receipt.
South Korea keeps up with the "trend" to promote the one-time drink cup deposit system, but it is controversial and delayed.
South Korea, one of the "three major countries of plastic", consumes an average of 3.3 billion single-use plastic cups per year, according to local media.
In order to solve the huge amount of plastic waste, South Korea revised the Resource Conservation and Recycling Promotion Act and plans to implement a one-time beverage cup deposit system in June 2022.
Korea's one-time beverage cup deposit system is similar to Germany's "return deposit", but there are the following problems: (1) the deposit is not clearly stipulated, (2) the barcode label used for recycling scanning needs to be purchased (burden), the purchase amount is difficult to estimate.
(3) The problem of cleaning and storage of the cup, the operator is worried that the customer will return the cup without cleaning, and the uncleaned cup will be stacked in the storage area, which will bring about hygiene problems.
Due to the above problems, the implementation of the one-time beverage cup deposit system will be delayed until December 2022, and the Korean Ministry of Environment is proposing solutions to various problems.
Looking back, there are still challenges to Taiwan's disposable drink cup limit.
In general, national governments implement plastic reduction policies through legislation, economic measures (such as taxes or fees on producers, sellers, and consumers), or a combination of policies (such as prohibiting shops from offering plastic bags and charging consumers for plastic bags), in addition to additional fees and incentives.
The British latte tax is a simple legal regulation. Although the tax collected will be used for the development of environmental protection policies, but for consumers, it is more like a "punishment" and therefore fails. As a result of the system's failure to implement it, it was delayed by a backlash from the industry.
Taiwan's new plastic reduction policy on the road, the (own) environmental cup people do have an increasing trend.
According to the "new environmental protection system on the road! Will you join the ranks of plastic reduction?" questionnaire survey, since the implementation of the policy, usually do not bring your own green cup, the discount from 1 to 3 yuan to 5 yuan, will increase the proportion of willing to bring your own green cup to 77.6%, which shows that the incentive of the "reward system" is significant, but the degree of implementation remains to be seen.
But even so, although the number of people using green cups has increased, it may also be a temporary trend; whether the current policy is feasible, how to achieve an average between business and consumers, and to create a system that is acceptable to both business and consumers in Taiwan, and which can be implemented for a long time, is a long way to go, but it is a sure way to go.
Reviewed by: Children 's Art Exhibition, Lin Yu-ting
[Extended reading]
Who buys the new environmental protection system? 9% of the people want to bring their own environmental cup due to the discount increase, but less than 30% are willing to rent a circulating cup!
6% of the people do not want to be increased due to environmental discounts! Manufacturers caught in the profit and environmental policies are afraid to be forced to adjust the product structure
2023 Circulation Cup If you want to go on the road, safety, health, clean hardware and equipment are at risk without first solving the implementation.
paper cup
Extended reading
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Germany has the highest household recycling rate, with Taiwan being second at over 50% of household resources.

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Let ’ s talk about the “brainwashing ” in Taiwan!
New York Times: A song that makes foreigners want to take out garbage
When you hear the world famous song “Für Elise ”, you want to take out garbage. It is rare for Taiwanese, but it is a very special thing for foreigners.
(Photo)
2022 / 02 / 10 11: 24
[Instant News / Comprehensive Report] When you hear the world famous song “Für Elise ”, you want to take out garbage, which is rare for Taiwanese, but very special for foreigners.
The US media recently reported that for many people in the world, this classical music is a universal children's piano practice song or toy soundtrack, but in Taiwan it is a brainwashing song, calling the public to go downstairs and take out the garbage.
The New York Times reported that after the "To Alice" sound in Taiwan, in the next 20 minutes, the originally calm street became a meeting place, people walked or biked and other ways, put the pre-sorted garbage in front of the garbage truck, and met neighbors and friends to exchange a few words and chat about gossip.
The report mentions that the garbage truck music in Taiwan includes not only Ludwig van Beethoven ’ s famous song “To Alice ”, but also the legendary work“ Maiden ’ s Prayer ” by the 19th-century Polish composer Tekla Bądarzewska-Baranowska.
This is all from Taiwan's decades-old "garbage does not land" policy, which is unique in the world. Garbage trucks rain and rain 5 days a week, so that Taiwan, once known as "garbage island", has become a clean society.
According to Eunomia, a British environmental consultancy, Taiwan has a recycling rate of more than 50% of household resources, second only to Germany and one of the lowest per capita waste production in the world.
Nate Maynard, a waste management expert in Taiwan, said that the role of garbage trucks in Taiwan ’ s successful environmental policy should not be overlooked, which makes people have to face the garbage they produce, and they have to deal with it and take it out.
The reason for choosing "To Alice" and "A Girl's Prayer" is still a mystery, and the folk legend uses "A Girl's Prayer" because Xu Ziqiu, the former director of health, just heard her daughter playing the song and decided to adopt it, while "To Alice" is the music that came with her when she bought a garbage truck from Germany.
For some, the songs have become a Pavlovian conditioning, with Maned recalling hearing "To Alice" while walking in a park in London, "I feel so hot that I have the urge to grab my garbage bag".
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