Kristina Overgaard Zacho

Addressing resource efficiency through the Ecodesign Directive: A review of opportunities and barriers

The European Union has initiated a number of initiatives to improve resource efficiency in Europe. The Ecodesign Directive is one of the policy instruments that could aid the transition towards a m ...

Understanding the role of waste prevention in local waste management: A literature review

Local waste management has so far been characterised by end-of-pipe solutions, landfilling, incineration, and recycling. End-of-pipe solutions build on a different mind-set than life cycle-based approaches, and for this reason, local waste managers are reluctant to consider strategies for waste prevention. To accelerate the transition of waste and resource management towards a more integrated management, waste prevention needs to play a larger role in the local waste management. In this review article, we collect knowledge from the scientific community on waste prevention of relevance to local waste management. We analyse the trends in the waste prevention literature by organising the literature into four categories. The results indicate an increasing interest in waste prevention, but not much literature specifically concerns the integration of prevention into the local waste management. However, evidence from the literature can inform local waste management on the prevention potential; the environmental and social effects of prevention; how individuals in households can be motivated to reduce waste; and how the effects of prevention measures can be monitored. Nevertheless, knowledge is still lacking on local waste prevention, especially regarding the methods for monitoring and how local waste management systems can be designed to encourage waste reduction in the households. We end the article with recommendations for future research. The literature review can be useful for both practitioners in the waste sector and for academics seeking an overview of previous research on waste prevention.

Product policies on the environmental performance of washing machines : Investigating the synergies and coherence between policy instruments

This report constitutes part of the larger project Eco-design and Future Product Policy – Further research on Energyrelated Products. The objective was to investigate how nine policy instruments af ...

Policy Brief : Addressing resource efficiency through the Ecodesign Directive - A review of opportunities and barriers

Recommendations for Nordic policymakers:Resource related ecodesign obligations will be a necessary part of the future policy mix, though not all parts of the policy puzzle is yet in place. The Nord ...