Sarajevo 26th November 2014
The 3R concept and its relevance in
Europe
Péter Szuppinger
Regional Environmental Center
The 3R concept
• Reduce
• Reuse
• Recycle
of waste, in the context of
production and consumption.
The concept originates from Japan, from 2004.
It calls for an increase in the ratio of recyclable
materials, further reusing of raw materials and
manufacturing wastes, and overall reduction in
resources and energy used.
Motivation
'Sound Material Flow Society' initiative was
driven by the following factors:
• the limitations of Japan's small land mass
• rapid industrial development
• the high volume of wastes being generated
in the country.
The concept
Source: Ministry of Environment, Japan
How to do this?
• Reducing means choosing to use items
with care to reduce the amount of waste
generated / production and consumption.
Reusing involves the repeated use of
items or parts of items which still have
usable aspects / or the whole product.
• Recycling means the use of waste itself as
resources.
Relevance to Europe
• highest net imports of
resources per person
• economy relies
heavily on imported
raw materials
• massive asymmetry in
trade patterns
• access to resources
has become a major
strategic concern
Source: EEA
Trend in Generation of Municipal Waste in Europe
Source: EEA
Municipal Waste Generation in Europe kg/capita
Source: EEA
Trend and Outlook of MWM in Europe
Source: EEA
Why we need this?
•
•
•
•
•
Due to changing lifestyles and consumption patterns, the quantity
of waste generated is increasing with quality and composition of
waste becoming more varied and changing.
Industrialization and economic growth has produced more amounts
of waste, including hazardous and toxic wastes.
There is a growing realization of the negative impacts that wastes
have on the local environment (air, water, land, human health etc.)
Complexity, costs and coordination of waste management has
necessitated multi-stakeholder involvement in every stage of the
waste stream. So an integrated approach to waste management is
needed.
We should look at waste as a business opportunity, (a) to extract
valuable resources contained within it (b) to safely process and
dispose wastes with a minimum impact on the environment
The European waste hierarchy
The European
waste hierarchy
refers to the five
steps included in
the article 4 of
the Waste
Framework
Directive
(Directive
2008/98/EC):
Thank you 
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