[LINK] "less packaging" vs "less damage"

[Karl Auer]

On Wed, 2006-08-30 at 16:01 +1000, Deus Ex Machina wrote:
> > Great! How would Switzerland do for starters? They've been doing it
> > there for at least a decade. Not renowned for a soft wishy washy stance
> > on practical economics, the Swiss...
> 
> and the evidence is where? what are you measuring? 

What would you like measured? By practically any yardstick, the garbage
handling, especially recycling, works very well. The amount of waste
(that is, stuff that is not reusable and is destined to be burned and
buried) has been reduced so much that the high-temperature incinerators,
which burn waste and sell the heat, are fighting over what has become a
dwindling resource. Many hundreds of jobs, in Switzerland and elsewhere,
have arisen in the recycling chain, particularly in recycled plastics
and metals.

Everyone recycles happily, because it is easy and makes economic sense
for them to reduce the amount of waste.

If you want more than my word on the matter, go look around on Google.
It will help if you can read German, French or Italian - German would be
best, but there is some stuff in English. Try searching on "Switzerland
recycling economic benefits". That found a document with a thumbnail
sketch of the situation in 1999:

http://www.cosit.ch/downloads/recycling_plastic_paper.pdf#search=%22Switzerland%20recycling%20economic%20benefits%22

Since then, they've gone from insufficient incinerator capacity to an
oversupply (or perhaps to an undersupply of waste, since the total
amount has been *falling* since 2000). That document contains the
summary line "The economic issue is practically solved as it could be
proven that even in Switzerland such processes can be operated
profitably."

That's just after a half-minute search - I'm sure there are better
links.

On the issue of making manufacturers and suppliers responsible for their
products at their end of life, try "Switzerland electronics recycling
fees", that found a host of likely-looking documents. This one gives a
neat overview of the systems (in English):

http://www.ewaste.ch/case_study_switzerland/recycling_system/actors/

Regards, K.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)                   +61-2-64957160 (h)
http://www.biplane.com.au/~kauer/                  +61-428-957160 (mob)