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wastewater (see Annex III of the directive) and/or rainfall water. The issue of
(micro)plastic is not included, so that adequate amendmentsmight beneeded.
Compared toEurope, theUSwastewater regulations establishedby theFederal
Water Pollution Control Act, short Clean Water Act [18], provide the basic
structure for regulating discharges of pollutants and regulating quality standards
for surfacewaters.TheCleanWaterAct refers to regulationofwastewater aswell
as entry of waste from diffuse sources. Total maximum daily loads of waste are
defined aiming at reducing the waste input to freshwater systems. However, it
should be noted that, for example, under Californian law, debris less than 5mm
is not considered litter subject to regulation [15, 19, 20].Accordingly, freshwater
MPs, here too, are currently not considered.
2.2.2 Land-BasedPolicy
Packaging
ThePackaging andPackagingWasteDirective [21] calls on themember states to
implement return, collection, and recovery systems.Themanufacturers, importers,
anddistributorsaredirectly responsible for reducingpackagingwasteaswellas for
developing their own take-back scheme. The “Green Dot Initiative” covering
severalEuropeancountries, for example, collects, sorts, and recyclesusedpackag-
ing. Furthermore, it encourages giving packaging waste a value while being
recovered and/or recycled. Hence, the Packaging and PackagingWasteDirective
aims not only at “ensur[ing] the functioning of the internal market and to avoid
obstacles to trade anddistortion and restrictionof competitionwithin theCommu-
nity”but alsoat “prevent[ing] any impact [. . .] on the environment of allMember
Statesaswell asof thirdcountriesor [. . .] reduc[ing] such impact, thusprovidinga
high level of environmental protection” [21, p. 3].
The Directive 2004/12/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of
11 February 2004 amending Directive 94/62/EC on packaging and packaging
waste [22] aims to ensure that recovery and recycling of packagingwaste should
be further increased to reduce its environmental impact. With regard to plastics
contained in packaging waste, it sets a minimum recycling target of 22.5% by
weight no later than 31 December 2008, counting exclusively material that is
recycled back into plastics. Annex I gives illustrative examples for criteria of
“packaging” referred to inArticle 3(1) of [21].Here, amongothers, plastic carrier
bags arementioned.
CarrierBags
Meanwhile, the issue of plastic carrier bags is picked up by another amending
directive, known as the PlasticBagsDirective [23]. The PlasticBagsDirective is
for thefirst timeconsideringnotonly themanagementofpackagingandpackaging
waste but also its consumption. Itwas adopted in 2015, and its implementation is
currentlyunderway in themember states. It aimsat reducingvery significantly the
use of single-use lightweight plastic carrier bags.Themeasures to be takenby the
248 N.Brennholt et al.
Freshwater Microplastics
Emerging Environmental Contaminants?
- Titel
- Freshwater Microplastics
- Untertitel
- Emerging Environmental Contaminants?
- Autoren
- Martin Wagner
- Scott Lambert
- Verlag
- Springer Open
- Datum
- 2018
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- CC BY 4.0
- ISBN
- 978-3-319-61615-5
- Abmessungen
- 15.5 x 24.1 cm
- Seiten
- 316
- Kategorien
- Naturwissenschaften Chemie