Browsing by Subject "laajennettu tuottajavastuu"

The use of plastics has remarkably increased during the last 50 years. Due to its multi-use possibilities, durability and low cost the use of plastics is expected to double within the next twenty years. Despite the many benefits of plastics, the negative impacts to the environment, such as marine plastic, have raised the public attention and accelerated the demand for legislative action. To respond to these challenges, the European Commission (EC) engaged in developing a set of policies, such as the action plan for circular economy in 2015 which aimed to reduce the use of plastics and to enhance the recycling and reusing of plastics already in circulation. In 2018 the EC introduced a set of revised directives regarding the extended producer responsibility (EPR). I wanted to understand how this revised EPR scheme would be implemented into national legislation, and how it would be confronted by organisations such as ones dealing with wood products. Additionally, I also mapped the potential managerial implications for stakeholders resulting from the implementation of the scheme. I operationalised Primmer's (2011) framework of institutional adaptation which builds on two complementary strands of literature; policy implementation and organisational adaptation. The two focal research questions that derived from the framework were: How did the involved actors recognise and perceive the challenges in 1) implementing and 2) adapting to the extension to the existing EPR scheme in the use of plastic packaging of wood products? The data were collected by conducting seven semi-structured interviews with representatives of stakeholder organisations. The insights were explored and reported from these data via the means of qualitative content analysis. Considering the complexity of policy and the diversity of organisations across Finland – and the European Union, legislators are in a rush to implement the new requirements of the directives into the national legislation. Based on my studies the involved actors recognised the various challenges in the implementation and adaptation processes. There were also expectations that the policy will drive learning and innovation among organisations. Currently, legislation is the major driving factor in the development of plastic recycling and EPR schemes can be a robust legislative tool in attaining the targets, when developed and maintained accordingly.