Elina Dace

An assessment of the potential of refuse‐derived fuel in Latvia

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to determine the production and energy potential of refuse derived fuel (RDF) in Latvia, in order to understand how large an impact municipal waste incineration with energy recovery has on waste management and energy supply systems in Latvia.Design/methodology/approach – The results of the study are based on historical data of municipal solid waste (MSW) management. The potential of RDF in Latvia is estimated and future sources of RDF production until 2020 are projected. The calculations of RDF potential are based on data on MSW generation, landfilling and composition, and on the calorific value of RDF fractions. The study also takes into account experimental results of RDF production trials in one landfill in Latvia.Findings – The amount of MSW landfilled annually until 2020 will grow, therefore new waste management options will have to be found in order to comply with EU waste policy. One of the options is waste‐to‐energy. The energy amount potentially produced by ...

Evaluation of economic aspects of the deposit‐refund system for packaging in Latvia

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to estimate the costs of implementation of the deposit‐refund system for packaging of beverage drinks in Latvia, and to evaluate the economic feasibility of the system in the period up to 2020.Design/methodology/approach – The economic assessment is based on the projections of the future consumption of beverage drinks, and of the amount of deposit packaging respectively. Investment, collection, transportation, maintenance and other system operating costs are considered. An evaluation is made to compare the producers’ costs in the existing curbside collection system and in deposit‐refund system.Findings – The costs of the deposit‐refund system depend on the amount of packaging placed on the market. The amount of deposit packaging, in its turn, depends on the consumption of beverage drinks affected by GDP. The implementation of the deposit‐refund system would cause an increase in the beverage drink packaging costs, as producers would need to pay the service charge to c...

Analysis of Ecodesign Implementation and Solutions for Packaging Waste System by Using System Dynamics Modeling

Analysis of Ecodesign Implementation and Solutions for Packaging Waste System by Using System Dynamics Modeling This paper discusses the findings of a research project which explored the packaging waste management system in Latvia. The paper focuses on identifying how the policy mechanisms can promote ecodesign implementation and material efficiency improvement and therefore reduce the rate of packaging waste accumulation in landfill. The method used for analyzing the packaging waste management policies is system dynamics modeling. The main conclusion is that the existing legislative instruments can be used to create an effective policy for ecodesign implementation but substantially higher tax rates on packaging materials and waste disposal than the existing have to be applied.