Competition is good for the circular economy, the Landbell Group said on Tuesday 20 July, in light of a study on the performance of different extended producer responsibility schemes in Europe carried out for the European Recycling Platform.
According to the study, producer responsibility organisations operating in a competitive environment focus strongly on innovation and improving services to producers. They also aim to increase customer satisfaction and ensure cost-effective implementation of waste management activities.
This applies to waste electrical and electronic equipment, batteries and packaging. Monopolistic systems, on the other hand, tend to rely on effective, but often costly, innovation and have a higher risk of abuse of market power, if there is insufficient transparency.
“In order to accelerate the transition towards circularity, we need to remove barriers to competition and avoid a concentration of market power at all stages of waste management”, commented Landbell Group CEO Jan Patrick Schulz.
The study suggests the creation of coordinating bodies independent of private interests to coordinate and monitor the allocation of collection responsibilities, manage joint activities such as awareness-raising campaigns, and act as intermediaries between professionals and other stakeholders such as local authorities.
See the study: https://bit.ly/3xS39Xt (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)