What factors determine attitudes towards the implementation of a packaging deposit and refund system? A qualitative study of the perception of Spanish consumers

Highlights

• Information availability on waste management systems determines recycling behaviour.

• Public engagement determines the effectiveness of waste collection systems.

• Implementing a packaging Deposit and Refund System is under consideration in Spain.

• Citizens have imperfect information on the implications of Deposit and Refund systems.

• Informing about the traits of a Deposit and Refund System reduces expected adoption.

Abstract

There is a growth of social concern regarding the deterioration of the environment. This has boosted the promotion of more efficient and sustainable mechanisms to deal with waste management. In Spain, waste management authorities and related organisations have engaged in a debate about the desirability to implement a packaging Deposit and Refund System (DRS). Under a DRS, consumers have to pay a “packaging deposit” as an added price to products purchased. This deposit is refunded when consumers return the used packaging to the point of sale in perfect conditions for identification. The implementation of such a system implies an important expense of resources. Its effectiveness in increasing the recycling rates crucially depends on public involvement and participation. This paper is grounded in previous studies on attitudes towards recycling. It presents the results of qualitative research performed to capture those factors that are determinant of the expected behaviour of citizens under the proposed DRS. The results indicate that the public perception of the DRS is very sensitive to the information provided. The description of some of the distinctive features of the new system, such as the mechanism associated with the economic deposit or the procedure to return packages, ultimately result in a rather negative evaluation and a reduced predisposition to participate in the waste collection. This study contributes to the analysis of what factors determine the adoption of the DRS, which is key to its success. It indicates that, beyond first impressions, the provision of information describing its features hinders the public's perception and has the potential to modify waste recycling behaviour.

Introduction

The growth of social concerns regarding the deterioration of the environment has boosted the promotion of more efficient and sustainable means to deal with waste generation and its management. Waste management systems are devoted to the recovery, treatment, and recycling of materials. They have the objective to reduce the environmental impact of waste and to generate value for the materials involved, avoiding that they are landfilled or incinerated.

Following the European Directive 94/62/EC and the National Packaging Waste Act 11/97, Spanish producers opted for joining an Extended Product Responsibility Scheme (EPRS) articulated via the Green Dot. The Spanish EPRS is a collective compliance scheme of selective collection of packaging waste managed by two organisations, Ecoembes (for paper and light packaging) and Ecovidrio (for glass packaging). Through the Green Dot fees, producers cover the costs of managing packaging waste, of which municipalities are in charge. Waste is mainly collected through selective kerbside, complemented with bulky kerbside containers, big producers’ direct collection and waste recycling centres. Most of the waste generated in households is collected via the street kerbside containers, that separate light packages (yellow bins), paper and carton (blue bins), organic waste (brown bins), glass (green bins), and general waste (grey bins).

In recent times, waste management authorities have been analysing and debating the possibility that Spain adopts a complementary Deposit and Refund System (DRS)) for some beverage packaging containers, mainly metal cans and PET bottles. The implementation of the proposed DRS implies that consumers pay a monetary deposit for the packages of certain products. This deposit is refunded when consumers return the used packages to the point of sale. The returned packages need to be in perfect condition to be recognised by the DRS system. While similar systems, with distinctive characteristics, are successfully in place in countries such as Finland, Denmark, Germany, or Norway, where the rate of recycling has increased, other countries such as France, the UK, Switzerland or Belgium have refused its implementation.

In Spain, different organisations have proposed to implement a DRS, arguing that, in combination with the EPRS, it would potentially increase the amount of recovered and recycled materials. In response, waste management authorities have fostered the analysis of the desirability of implementing the DRS in Spain. Several organisations have studied its environmental and economic implications (Oliver et al., 2011; RETORNA, 2011; SISMEGA, 2011; Fletcher et al., 2012; IC Inclam CO₂, 2012; InstitutCerdà, 2012; FEMP (Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces), 2013; PES 2016a, 2016b; Fullana-i-Palmer et al., 2017; InstitutCerdà, 2017; Mestre et al., 2017; Bala et al., 2019). Results on the desirability of implementing the DRS in Spain have not converged.

The lack of consensus regarding whether the impact of implementing the DRS in Spain would, in the overall, be positive arises from the unavailability of accurate data and its high dependence on many variables. The geographic dispersion of retailers, the economic value associated with the deposit, and the types of packaging included in the system are just a few of the many parameters that, together with people's willingness to participate in the system, affect the performance of the DRS. The present research, developed within the Ariadna Project, a study of the environmental, economic, and social impact of the implementation of a DRS in Spain (Fullana-i-Palmer et al., 2017), aims to analyse a critical factor affecting the system's efficiency: citizenship's attitude and expected recycling behaviour under the proposed DRS.

The research conducted studies the public's evaluation of the features of the DRS system proposed by the Catalan Waste Agency in 2016 (ARC, 2015), and how the provision of information about these characteristics affects individuals' perception and the expected adoption of the system. The main characteristics of the DRS analysed are: 1) consumers pay a deposit fee per package when they purchase products that are packaged with the materials that are subject to the system; 2) the system exclusively includes packaging of water, soft drinks, juices, beers, wines and liquors; 3) the system includes the collection of PET, HDPE, steel, aluminium, beverage cartons and glass; 4) the system exclusively includes packages that are below 3 L of capacity; 5) materials collected via the DRS are recycled with the same mechanisms as those subject to the EPRS. Individuals must discard those materials that are not included in the DRS following the pre-existent EPRS.

After a review of background studies, the article presents the design and results of the qualitative research performed based on focus group discussions. The results obtained allow, in the discussion section, extracting a set of insights for waste management decision-makers regarding the factors that would ultimately determine willingness to adopt the DRS, its overall efficiency and, thus, its desirability.