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Extended Producer Responsibility for Solar Photovoltaic panels: Practices and challenges for end-of-life management in Germany, Italy and Switzerland

Mehta, Sunanda LU (2017) In IIIEE Theses IMEN56 20171
The International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics
Abstract
As the capacity of solar photovoltaic (PV) panels installed around the world increases every year, so does the concern regarding their proper end-of-life management given the hazardous nature of this waste. European Member States such as Germany, Italy and Spain, being amongst the earliest adopters of this technology, have already started seeing end-of-life PV modules coming into the waste streams. In order to address the concerns regarding their proper handling, PV has been added as a separate waste category in the recast WEEE Directive (2012/19/EU) and falls under the increasingly ambitious targets set by the Directive for all the Member States. This thesis will evaluate the EPR systems in three case countries – Germany, Italy and... (More)
As the capacity of solar photovoltaic (PV) panels installed around the world increases every year, so does the concern regarding their proper end-of-life management given the hazardous nature of this waste. European Member States such as Germany, Italy and Spain, being amongst the earliest adopters of this technology, have already started seeing end-of-life PV modules coming into the waste streams. In order to address the concerns regarding their proper handling, PV has been added as a separate waste category in the recast WEEE Directive (2012/19/EU) and falls under the increasingly ambitious targets set by the Directive for all the Member States. This thesis will evaluate the EPR systems in three case countries – Germany, Italy and Switzerland with a focus on policy transpositions, adaptation of the existing to include this new waste stream and the overall performance of each system in achieving its intended outcomes. Different Member States have transposed the new Directive in different ways into their national legislations and this brings up the question of how each systems is performing. By using complementary analytical methods combined with the intervention theory and a general performance framework, this thesis will evaluate each of the systems based on the three main goals of EPR: Improved Waste Management practices, Closed Material Loop and Eco-Design. The findings highlight where the systems have succeeded and where they face challenges. Recommendations are made on the basis of these findings that can be used to enhance the system performances. (Less)
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author
Mehta, Sunanda LU
supervisor
organization
course
IMEN56 20171
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Extended Producer Responsibility, Individual Producer Responsibility, WEEE Directive, photovoltaic waste, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, policy evaluation, intervention theory
publication/series
IIIEE Theses
report number
2017:08
ISSN
1401-9191
language
English
id
8923140
date added to LUP
2017-08-30 12:44:07
date last changed
2017-08-30 12:44:07
@misc{8923140,
  abstract     = {{As the capacity of solar photovoltaic (PV) panels installed around the world increases every year, so does the concern regarding their proper end-of-life management given the hazardous nature of this waste. European Member States such as Germany, Italy and Spain, being amongst the earliest adopters of this technology, have already started seeing end-of-life PV modules coming into the waste streams. In order to address the concerns regarding their proper handling, PV has been added as a separate waste category in the recast WEEE Directive (2012/19/EU) and falls under the increasingly ambitious targets set by the Directive for all the Member States. This thesis will evaluate the EPR systems in three case countries – Germany, Italy and Switzerland with a focus on policy transpositions, adaptation of the existing to include this new waste stream and the overall performance of each system in achieving its intended outcomes. Different Member States have transposed the new Directive in different ways into their national legislations and this brings up the question of how each systems is performing. By using complementary analytical methods combined with the intervention theory and a general performance framework, this thesis will evaluate each of the systems based on the three main goals of EPR: Improved Waste Management practices, Closed Material Loop and Eco-Design. The findings highlight where the systems have succeeded and where they face challenges. Recommendations are made on the basis of these findings that can be used to enhance the system performances.}},
  author       = {{Mehta, Sunanda}},
  issn         = {{1401-9191}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  series       = {{IIIEE Theses}},
  title        = {{Extended Producer Responsibility for Solar Photovoltaic panels: Practices and challenges for end-of-life management in Germany, Italy and Switzerland}},
  year         = {{2017}},
}