Policies to promote the waste management hierarchy : with special attention to the paper cycle in Europe

The main objective of this study was to review policy instruments available to promote aspects of the waste management hierarchy. The motivation of this review is embedded in two questions: (1) What policy instruments are most effective in promoting the waste hierarchy? and, (2) Should EU policies in the European paper cycle be harmonised? With respect to the first question, the most effective policy instrument to promote the waste hierarchy for the European paper cycle, it is concluded that none of the policy categories is sufficient to ‘do the job’ alone. Firstly, it is important to note that most of the policies reviewed in this study impact on only a small part of the waste hierarchy and so a range of policies are required to promote the full hierarchy. Secondly, it is recognised that an appropriate balance needs to be struck between regulatory, economic and communicative instruments. Regarding the second question, harmonisation of EU policies, it is concluded that for the most part, it is better to have country-specific policy strategies, while for some part EU wide policies are more appropriate

Economic instruments and waste policies in the Netherlands - Inventory and options for extended use

In recent years, the interest in the use of economic instruments in environmental policy has been growing, reflecting increasing awareness of their potential cost-effectiveness as well as the need to diversify the ‘policy toolbox’. Waste policy is no exception to this tendency. The present study explores the opportunities for extended use of economic instruments for waste policy in the Netherlands, focusing on waste from households and the trade, services and government secto

Changing industrial metabolism: methods for analysis

Research in the field of "industrial metabolism" traditionally has been focused on measuring and describing physical flows of economic systems. The "metabolism" of economic systems, however, changes over time, and measuring material flows is insufficient to understand this process. Understanding the relation between economic activities and material flows can help to unravel the socio-economic causes of these physical flows. Three issues are addressed: The importance of spatial scales and trade flows, empirical analysis of relations between economic development and material flows, and treatment of behaviour of and interactions between stake-holders. For each of these issues, methods for analysis are suggested

Preferences for European agrarian landscapes: A meta-analysis of case studies

Stated preference studies are increasingly employed to estimate the value of attributes of European agrarian landscapes and changes therein. Despite the vast amount of case studies, preferences for landscape attributes are context specific, which inhibits cross-case comparison and up-scaling. In this study, we address this problem by applying a meta-analysis of stated preference studies that focus on attributes of European agrarian landscapes (n = 345). The main objective of this study is to identify generic preferences for particular types of landscape attributes across case studies. In addition, landscape context variables that explain preference heterogeneity between different cases that address similar landscape attributes are identified. We find that landscape attributes that describe mosaic land cover, historic buildings or the presence of livestock generally receive the highest stated preferences across cases. Furthermore, we find relations between preferences for particular attributes and context variables – such as population density and GDP per capita – using a meta-regression analysis. The results of the present study provide the first cross-disciplinary and cross-case evidence on relations between preferences for landscape attributes and socio-economic and landscape context conditions. The study is a first step toward up-scaling of landscape preferences and the development social landscape indicators that reflect the perceived value of landscapes at regional and pan-regional scales, which is increasingly important as landscape policies are progressively implemented at European level