Analysis of Sustainability Aspects of the Packaging Deposit-Refund System in Latvia

In Latvia, for more than a decade, a container system for packaging waste segregation has been in a continuous process of development – starting with the first containers in the beginning of 2000s until now, when there are efforts made to provide containers to people living in rural areas. Although the regeneration targets set by EU are fulfilled by the existing system, it is still considered as not effective enough. In many cases the existing system is considered as economically and even environmentally unsustainable, but it is still maintained due to governmental pressure. At the same time, for about last five years hot discussions are held on implementation of packaging deposit system which would operate in parallel with the existing containers’ system. Since there are too many controversial arguments from the stakeholders involved, an analysis is necessary to assess the sustainability aspects of implementation of the depositrefund system in Latvia. The paper presents the results of an analysis of the social, economic and environmental aspects. The results show that the depositrefund system has a positive influence on the environmental aspects, however the benefits gained have to be balanced with the system’s costs and efficiency, which is hard to reach in Latvia because of small beverage drinks’ consumption. Therefore, solutions have to be found to enhance the existing curbside containers’ system rather than to introduce the deposit-refund system.