How to achieve ambitious recycling targets for plastic packaging waste? The environmental impact of increased waste separation and sorting in Norway

Driven by European legislation, counties must improve their plastic packaging recycling system to meet ambitious recycling targets. This study analyses the current plastic packaging recycling system in Norway, together with three alternative systems and evaluates their performance on environmental impact and achievement of policy indicators. The alternative systems include measures to increase separation of plastic packaging waste and to increase plastic sorting capacity in Norway. A lower impact on climate change (between 531 kg and 874 kg CO2 eq. compared to the current system) was obtained for scenarios with high separation of plastic packaging waste. Without better waste separation, increased sorting in Norway resulted in a higher impact on climate change (between 46 kg and 123 kg CO2 eq.) compared to the current system. Mixed-waste MRFs can help to obtain high recycling rates, but their implementation should be coordinated centrally to avoid potential adverse effects. Furthermore, none of the proposed systems reached the recycling rate targets, showing that improvements are necessary across the entire value chain.

Automated summary

Driven by European legislation, Norway must improve its plastic packaging recycling system to meet recycling targets. This study analyzes the current system and three alternative systems, evaluating their environmental impact and policy indicators. The study finds that increasing separation and sorting capacity can reduce the impact on climate change.