Introduction

A deposit-refund system (DRS) applied to packaging can be defined as a system in which consumers pay a
certain amount in concept of “packaging deposit” added to the price of a product and receive the refund back
when they return the used packaging. Such systems are currently in place in some European countries such
as Finland, Denmark and Germany, whereas other countries like the UK, France and Belgium refused to
apply it. In Spain, especially in the Eastern regions of Balearic Islands, Catalonia, and Valencia, there is an
ongoing debate on the suitability of implementing such a system in order to increase recycling rates for
household waste. Two key aspects of such a system, as intended in Spain, are first that the goal is not to
reuse the packaging, but to recycle the materials, and second that since not all types of packaging waste
would be affected by this new system, it would inevitably coexist with the green dot kerb-side collection
scheme currently in place in the country, managed by Ecoembes and Ecovidrio. We present a social
footprint assessment of implementing this new system, carried out as part of a wider project assessing
environmental (through LCA), economic and social aspects of the DRS implementation in Spain.

Slides available her: Social footprint presentation SETAC Rome. Extended abstract below.