Examining the concept of convenient collection: an application to extended producer responsibility and product stewardship frameworks.

Department of Environmental Science, 106 Bailey Hall, University of Southern Maine, Gorham, ME 04038, USA. twagner@usm.maine.edu

Waste management (New York, N.Y.) 2013 Mar

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Increasingly, Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and Product Stewardship (PS) frameworks are being adopted as a preferred policy approach to promote cost-effective diversion and recovery of post-consumer solid waste. Because the application of EPR/PS generally requires the creation of a separate and often parallel collection and/or management system, key to increasing the amount of waste recovered is to maximize the convenience of the collection system to maximize consumer participation. Convenient collection is often mandated in EPR/PS laws, however it is not defined. Convenience is a subjective construct rendering it extremely difficult to define. However, based on a dissection of post-consumer collection efforts under a generic EPR/PS system, this paper identifies and examines five categories of convenience - knowledge requirements, proximity to a collection site, opportunity to drop-off materials, the draw of the collection site, and the ease of the process-and the various factors of convenience within each of these categories. By using a simplified multiple criteria decision analysis, this paper proposes a performance matrix of criteria of convenience. Stakeholders can use this matrix to assist in the design, assessment, and/or implementation of a convenient post-consumer collection system under an EPR/PS framework. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Citation

Travis P Wagner. Examining the concept of convenient collection: an application to extended producer responsibility and product stewardship frameworks. Waste management (New York, N.Y.). 2013 Mar;33(3):499-507