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Sammanfattning

Currently 70-80 percent of Sweden’s plastic waste is incinerated. Waste-to-energy is usually considered being a mix of fossil and renewable energy and currently around 3 percent of Sweden’s greenhouse gas emissions can be attributed to the incineration of plastic waste. Therefore this paper explores the effects of two major measures to decrease the amount of incinerated plastic and thereby increase recycling rate of plastic and decrease greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, interviews were carried out to find out what policy instruments would be effective to decrease the amount of incinerated plastic. The two major measures are the following: constructing a waste sorting plant and implementing property close collection of household waste. The result is presented as a scenario analysis where the effects of the two measures in the county of Västmanland, Sweden are presented and compared. The data was collected through literature and data analysis and interviews. Four scenarios are described; 1: status quo (no new measures), 2: a waste sorting plant is constructed and used, 3: property close collection of waste is implemented, and 4: a waste sorting plant is combined with property close collection of waste. Both measures are effective ways of lowering the greenhouse gas emissions from waste incineration and in increasing the collection rate of plastic waste. Though, using a waste sorting plant leads to a higher collection rate of plastic and lower greenhouse gas emissions than implementing property close collection of household waste. The scenario in which both methods are combined gave the highest environmental benefits.