Icelandic Recycling Fund
Iceland
The Icelandic Recycling Fund (Úrvinnslusjóður)
The Icelandic Recycling Fund (IRF) is a national institution responsible for implementing extended producer responsibility in Iceland. Its mission is to foster a circular economy by creating economic incentives that encourage sustainable resource use, reduce waste generation, and transform waste into valuable raw materials.
Operating under the Act on Recycling Fees, the IRF administers and allocates recycling fees to ensure that products are managed responsibly throughout their lifecycle. The fund works in close cooperation with waste management companies, negotiating contracts and tenders to process waste efficiently while prioritizing environmental benefits and the waste hierarchy.
System Description
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Icelandic Recycling Fund
The Recycling Fund is a state-owned agency, responsible to the Minister for the Environment. In order to ensure the best possible outcome of agency activities, its Board is composed of the representatives of those who have the greatest interest in waste handling being as efficient as possible, i.e. representatives of municipalities and the commercial sector.
The five directors on the Recycling Fund Board are appointed by the Minister for the Environment for four-year terms. The Minister appoints the Board Chairman without a nomination, along with one director upon a mutual nomination by the Federation of Icelandic Fish Processing Plants and the Federation of Icelandic Fishing Vessel Owners, one director from the Federation of Icelandic Industries, one director from the Federation of Trade and Services and one director from the National Association of Local Authorities in Iceland.
The Fund applies economic incentives to establish practical arrangements for processing waste, which means providing the monetary prerequisites so that businesses in the market will realize the benefit of involving themselves in the processing programme. It is for this reason that the Fund contracts out waste processing, based on tenders or task contracts, and uses the recycling fee to pay the expenses.
The purpose of operating the Icelandic Recycling Fund and collecting recycling fees. In recent years, understanding has increased of how necessary it is to gain control of the growing quantity of waste that has accompanied today’s consumer society. Demands are placed by individuals, municipalities and the commercial sector on systematic solutions for waste and on products not causing damage to the environment. At the level of the European Economic Area, rules with this objective have been set for the Area as a whole, as well as by the governments of individual member states.
These rules build on the “polluter pays principle”, meaning that whoever causes waste should pay for its reuse, recovery or disposal. The trend is towards shifting responsibility to an ever greater extent onto those who put the product on the market, regardless of whether they are manufacturers or importers. This is referred to as “producer liability”. Iceland’s authorities have set the goal of systematically reducing the waste formation and channelling waste into reuse and recovery. The Act on Recycling Fees was passed in an effort to achieve this end, charging the Icelandic Recycling Fund with creating conducive economic conditions for reuse and recovery, lowering the volume of waste going into final disposal and ensuring the proper disposal of hazardous substances.
Communication activities
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The Icelandic Recycling Fund informs producers, importers and the public about recycling fees and producer responsibility in Iceland. It publishes guidance and fee schedules for the products covered by the Act on Recycling Fees, reports each year on the quantities collected and recovered, and works with municipalities and waste-management companies to keep recycling options clear and accessible across the country.
Úrvinnslusjóður – English · Icelandic Recycling Fund – island.is
Prevention
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Prevention is built into the way the Recycling Fund works. By applying the polluter-pays principle through recycling fees, the Fund creates an economic incentive for producers and importers to reduce waste and to choose products that are easier to reuse and recover. The fees are channelled into the collection, recycling and safe disposal of waste, lowering the volume sent to final disposal and supporting Iceland’s transition towards a circular economy.
Contact
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The Icelandic Recycling Fund/ Úrvinnslusjóður
Suðurlandsbraut 24, 108 Reykjavík
ICELAND
E-mail: urvinnslusjodur@urvinnslusjodur.is
Web: www.urvinnslusjodur.is