The looming perspective of growing mountains of packaging waste in Europe led several Member States to implement packaging and packaging waste policies and induced the EU to formulate the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive. The Directive, established in 1994, has contributed to the reduction of environmental problems resulting from that waste. But has it been really successful? Has it achieved its goals? What are the reasons for the mixed results?

This book analyses how three Member states (Germany, France and Finland) have implemented the Directive and appraises the results. The analysis has been undertaken by an international team of researchers. Within each of these countries, the researchers analyse the impact of the Directive on Member State policy and the link between policy output and choices in technology. Attention will also be given to what the Directive has failed to achieve: reduction in packaging volumes and substitution in packaging materials.