Robert Marschinski’s research while affiliated with The Joint Commission and other places

Socioeconomic impacts of Circular Economy (CE) policies, particularly those that are not easily quantifiable, are frequently overlooked. To address this shortcoming, a comprehensive Typology of Socioeconomic Impacts is developed in this work, which encompasses a wide range of identified impacts as well as providing insights into policy objectives, measures, economic sectors and products. The aim of this study is to offer lessons learned and recommendations to improve CE policymaking in the EU by making the scope and depth of socioeconomic impact assessments more comprehensive. It provides good practice examples from the literature analysed, EU impact assessments and evaluations as well as from international organisations, national and local governments and civil society.

The aim of this study is to develop a proposal for an operational framework for a harmonised quality management system at EU level, with respect to the collection, reporting and publication of waste data as well as monitoring. To this end, a screening of the current situation in the EU-27 has been carried out, focusing particularly on data collection and reporting practices. This proposal builds upon the reporting obligations laid down in the Waste Framework Directive, the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive and the Waste Statistics Regulation. Member States have the obligation to demonstrate compliance with EU recycling targets and are encouraged to establish a system for quality control and traceability of waste. The implementation of a harmonised quality management system can help Member States to track the progress of municipalities towards the attainment of the targets and to assess the impact of specific measures. It can facilitate comparability of data across Member States and better monitoring of the performance of waste management in the EU-27 and beyond. The availability of reliable and consistent waste data can ultimately support the development of new policy options under EU waste legislation.

The EU strategy for sustainable and circular textiles envisages “a circular textiles ecosystem that has sufficient capacities for innovative fibre-to-fibre recycling, while the incineration and landfilling of textiles is reduced to the minimum”. The general objective of this study is to summarise the techno-scientific knowledge base of different recycling, recovery and disposal options for waste textiles. First, it is indicated that post-consumer textile waste is the largest waste fraction, and that annually more than 8 million tonnes used and waste textiles are incinerated or landfilled, a much higher share than re-use, preparing for re-use and recycling together. Textile waste recycling is limited and currently dominated by transforming apparel and home textiles into cleaning rags and insulation materials, but closed-loop recycling facilities are emerging in the EU, particularly for post-industrial textile waste. Second, the life cycle assessment and cost analysis indicated that re-use and preparing for re-use are the most cost-effective options and have the best environmental performance. Whereas recycling is associated to greater costs than incineration and landfilling, it commonly brings supplementary environmental savings. Third, economic and non-economic barriers to recycling, particularly closed-loop recycling were identified. The information provided in this report may contribute to informing policy design and implementation on textile waste management.

Separate collection of waste is an enabler for the recovery of valuable materials which can be recycled or otherwise valorised. However, it relies on adequate sorting by individuals, which can be facilitated by relevant information provided on the product packaging (on-pack labelling), and on the receptacles used for waste collection. Waste from packaging represents up to 40% of municipal solid waste and can drive the improvement in collection of recyclable materials. Meanwhile, as EU deadlines for separate collection targets close in, Member States are implementing various schemes designed to assist sorting, including labelling on products and bins. This often results in a multiplication of labels to be displayed in different jurisdictions, increasing costs for producers and increasing the risk of confusion for consumers. Harmonised labels to be displayed on product packaging, with matching labels on waste receptacles indicating where those should be disposed of, would address these issues and yield economic and environmental benefits. The analysis presented herein assesses the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of introducing such a harmonised labelling in the EU over the coming years. Results suggest that this measure would generate a net benefit as compared to a business-as-usual scenario. It would be expected to yield overall socio-economic benefits, and improvements in environmental performance in all cases considered.

We study the impact of service trade restrictions on bilateral greenfield FDI projects in four business services sectors within a gravity model framework. Project level FDI data for 43 destination countries and up to 41 source countries spanning the years 2014 to 2020 stems from the fDi Markets database, and restrictions from the OECD’s Service Trade Restrictiveness Index (STRI). Using a negative binomial estimator to explain the number of bilateral FDI projects, we find that service trade restrictions represent a significant barrier for greenfield FDI. In three out of four business services we obtain statistically significant evidence of a negative effect of the compound STRI level. Using three sub‐components of the index (restrictions to foreign entry, restrictions to the movement of people, other service trade restrictions) generally improves the explanatory power of the models. To illustrate potential magnitudes, we simulate how the number of expected FDI projects would increase in response to a hypothetical policy reform reducing relevant restrictions by 50%. We find average increases across the destination countries ranging between 20% and 104%, with a strong dependence on which business service sector is considered and whether or not the FDI projects only involve countries of the European Economic Area (EEA).

We examine the drivers of labor productivity at aggregate and sectoral levels focusing on tangible and intangible ICT capital, FDI and global value chain participation. The analysis, based on a panel dataset of 18 EU countries, the US and Japan over the period 2000–2017, reveals an important role of ICT capital, especially intangible ICT capital embodied in software and databases, in driving labor productivity growth. Furthermore, backward global value chain participation is also positively associated with productivity. Contrary to expectations, we do not find evidence of a productivity-enhancing effect of foreign direct investment when controlling for phantom FDI related to special purpose entities.

In the context of the EU’s Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP), the Joint Research Centre is investigating the rationale for harmonising separate collection systems for municipal waste. The present report reviews and identifies the key parameters and elements making up a waste collection system, covering the range of different approaches currently followed in the Member States (e.g. “common bin colours, harmonised symbols for key waste types, product labels, information campaigns and economic instruments” as indicated in the CEAP). It also reviews other logistical elements such as collection frequencies, modes of collection (including deposit refund-schemes), spatial distribution, and level of separate collection of different waste fractions, with the aim of gathering evidence on the overall benefits brought by these options from a life cycle perspective. Similarly, the report provides an overview of the state-of-the-art knowledge available on the performance of waste collection systems, focusing on the environmental and economic implications.