Traditional approaches to managing post-consumer waste have
done little to significantly reduce the per capita generation and
disposal of solid waste and the associated upstream wastes. For
example, in the EU-27 member states, great strides have been made
in recycling, but in absolute terms, the consumption of materials
continues to increase (EEA, 2012). Per capita waste generation rates
in the EU are stabilizing as a result of multiple laws and policies to
implement the waste management hierarchy; however, upstream
and post-consumer waste is projected to continue to grow in absolute
terms (EEA, 2012). Our ability to successfully divert postconsumer
waste from disposal is important to the reduction of
upstream waste