Roadmap for 100% Recycling Rate” of Aluminium UBC in Europe
Abstract
As the primary production of aluminium is very energy-intensive, the recycling of aluminium products is saving energy: aluminium recycling processes only need 5 % of the energy compared to primary production. In the context of future recycling targets set out by the European Union, options on how to include potential informal sector diversion of aluminium beverage packaging into formal recycling initiatives has to be focused on. Informal collection, (pre-)processing and trading of waste in general and UBC specifically are well-known activities and could be proofed also for several European countries. All of the informal or sometimes even illegal activities have in common that by the informal collectors waste is seen as income possibility. But there are differences in terms of places of activities (e.g. waste picking in the streets, at household level or at landfills / dumps) and types of collected waste (often UBC are collected together with other recyclables). Also the formal side of waste management shows huge differences in terms of which fractions are collected together or separately, what is separated before treatment, which part of the collected UBC belongs to municipal solid waste, which to commercial waste and how are figures reported in general. Waste management systems are more or less developed in different European countries therefore giving more or less room for informal activities but also resulting in more or less success of different collection schemes. The goals of the proposed study are: • To estimate the dimension of informal activities in the sector of aluminium beverage packaging in the selected groups of countries using and if necessary updating developed key performance indicators of the informal sector in selected Eastern European cities focussing on aluminium beverage packaging; • To conclude what are possible options how to formalise the information on informal collected cans
keywords Aluminium beverage cans waste collection Recycling informal sector
Publikationen
Project staff
Gudrun Obersteiner
Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Gudrun Obersteiner
gudrun.obersteiner@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-81319
Project Leader
01.06.2019 - 30.10.2020
BOKU partners
External partners
Springloop Cooperatie U.A.
Anne Scheinberg
partner