There is much talk, these days of circular economy. Real policy goes partly in the opposite direction. I was reminded of this when looking at an old paper on waste management with Bartelings. In the 1990s most packaging was glass bottles or metal cans and it was practically all recycled through deposit refund instruments. Today drinks are sold in assemblies of plastic, paper and metal that defy efforts to reuse them – and bottles seldom have deposits but are maybe still collected separately. Chemicals is an exciting but very complex area just because there are so many species.

Articles

• Sterner, T., Turnheim, B. (2009). “Innovation and diffusion of Environmental Technology: Industrial NOX abatement in Sweden under Refunded Emission Payments“, Ecological Economics, vol 68, no 12, pp. 2996-3006
• Slunge, D. and T. Sterner (2001). “Implementation of Policy Instruments for Chlorinated Solvents”, European Environment, Vol 11, no. 5, pp 281-296, ISSN 0961-0405.
• Bartelings, H. and T. Sterner (1999). “Household Waste Management in a Swedish Municipality” Environmental and Resource Economics, Vol. 13, no. 4, pp 473-491.