Instrumentos económicos para la gestión de residuos de envases en Ecuador

This paper aims at presenting different possible economic instruments to improve packaging waste management in Ecuador. The paper begins by presenting the current situation of solid waste management in Ecuador, focusing on packaging waste and on the Refundable Tax on Single Use Plastic Bottles in particular. Next, the state-of-the-art of economic instruments applied to managing packaging waste is presented; particularly: the extended producer responsibility, environmental taxes and deposit-refund schemes are discussed. The paper also evaluates possible applications for these instruments in Ecuador and proposes actions under the existing legal framework and the current system of waste management.