Seite - 254 - in Freshwater Microplastics - Emerging Environmental Contaminants?

Outside Europe, there are further deposit and return systems. In the USA, for instance,containerdeposit laws,knownasbottlebills,arecurrently implementedin ten states. They require a minimum refundable deposit on beverage containers (usually 5 or 10 cents) in order to promote a high rate of recycling or reuse to reduce waste and prevent littering. By the bottle bills, the refund value of the container provides amonetary incentive to return the container for recycling (see http://www.bottlebill.org/). Many countries have implemented waste management plans or schemes to prevent and reduce waste production, recover through reuse and recycling, and properlydispose thewaste.Thishelps topreventenvironmentalpollutionincluding the pollutionof freshwater systems. The Flanders PublicWasteAgency (OVAM), developing andmonitoring leg- islation and policies regardingwaste management and soil remediation, initiated measures that included promoting source separation, subsidizing the construction of recycling and composting facilities, and discouragingwaste. Hence, Flanders, theFlemishregionofBelgium,reused, recycled,orcompostedalmost three-fourths of the residentialwaste produced in this region and has alsomanaged to stabilize waste generation [45]. Furthermore, within the framework of the FlemishWaste Regulation, general regulations that prohibit any kind of littering have been implemented. The Luxembourgian Waste Management Plan [46] aims at preventing and reducing waste production and pollution from waste; recovering through reuse, recycling, and other environmentally appropriate methods; as well as disposing finalwaste in an environmentally and economically appropriateway. It set quan- titative targets for recovery and recycling includingpackagingwaste. It states that “[o]ther avoided emissions include the benefits of recycling of food and garden waste,paper,glass,metals,plastics, textilesandwoodinthemunicipalsolidwaste” [47, p. 10]. Regulation instruments do not only address the end (i.e., waste) but also at the beginningofproduct life orproduct design. For instance, theUK’sThePackaging (EssentialRequirements)Regulations 2003 [48] urge themanufacturer to produce the packaging that its “volume and weight be limited to the minimum adequate amount tomaintain the necessary level of safety, hygiene and acceptance for the packedproductandfor theconsumer”andtodesign theirproducts insuchawayso as topermit its reuseandrecoveryandtominimize itsenvironmental impactduring the packaging waste disposal. Furthermore, the “Packaging shall be so manufactured that the presence of noxious and other hazardous substances and materials as constituents of the packaging material or of any of the packaging components isminimisedwithregardto theirpresenceinemissions,ashor leachate when packaging or residues frommanagement operations or packagingwaste are incineratedor landfilled” [48, p. 7]. In the USA, for instance, the Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2015 [49], amending theFederal Food,Drug, andCosmeticAct, prohibits “Themanufacture or the introductionordelivery for introduction into interstate commerceof a rinse- off cosmetic that contains intentionally-added plasticmicrobeads.”Here a plastic 254 N.Brennholt et al.