Estimating the packaging share in household hazardous waste: Methodology proposal and case study application

Abstract

Detailed data on packaging shares in household hazardous waste (HHW) are scarce to nonexistent. Yet, they are useful both in terms of extended producer responsibility (EPR) on packaging as in terms of material tracking in the circular economy. This paper proposes a methodology for estimating the packaging share in HHW and validates this methodology by means of an experiment at a civic amenity site in Flanders, Belgium, where each HHW-fraction was sorted out according to packaging type. The gross mass of the HHW, i.e., including packaging, and the number of recipients were determined, after which the packaging mass was estimated based on a database of empty packaging masses compiled for this purpose. An overall packaging share of 20.9 ± 6.3% was found for the HHW sorted out during the experiment. Based on the annual amounts of the considered HHW-fractions collected at the civic amenity site, the overall packaging share in HHW was estimated at 25.6 ± 10.0%.

Keywords

• Household hazardous waste
• HHW
• Packaging
• Extended producer responsibility
• Sorting experiment