Ignasi Puig (ENT) is one of the authors of the new article published by Ciencia Digital entitled “Economic instruments for the management of packaging waste in Ecuador”. The other authors are Juan Pinos Flores, Fernanda Banegas, Fanny Quezada, Gabriela Delgado, Nataly Orellana, Silvia Saquisilí, Toa Quindi and Gustavo Chacón.
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 economic instruments applied to managing packaging waste are presented; particularly: 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.