Alternative scenarios for a sustainable MSW and the national and European Trajectories

Abstract

The development of what we termed scenarios in Chapter VI is the culmination of a long process, which began with the analysis of several national waste management regimes (see Buclet, Godard, 2000) and has been further developed in this volume in a comparative approach. This has allowed us to delineate several trajectories in household waste management in Europe. These trajectories do not constitute three separate or alternative directions, mostly due to the nature of scenario 3, the development of which should follow on from the adoption of scenario 1 or 2. However, the adoption of scenario 1 or 2 does not automatically presuppose that the process has to continue with the adoption of scenario 3. The only element of certainty is the incompatibility of scenario 1 with scenario 2. They inculcate opposed methodological directions, even if it is not certain that their adoption would also yield opposite results. They constitute very different ways of reaching the same point, as they both assume that, ultimately, standards and processes will improve, both technically and environmentally speaking.