Resources, Conservation and Recycling 87 (2014) 72–88 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Resources, Conservation and Recycling jo u r n al homep age: www.elsevier.com/locate/resconrec Design of a European agrochemical plastic packaging waste management scheme—Pilot implementation in Greece D. Briassoulis a,∗ , M. Hiskakis a , H. Karasali b , C. Briassoulis a a Agricultural University of Athens, Agricultural Engineering Department, 75 Iera Odos, 11855 Athens, Greece b Laboratory of Chemical Control of Pesticides, Department of Pesticides Control and Phytopharmacy, Benaki Phytopathological Institute, 8St. Delta Street, Kifissia, 14561 Athens, Greece a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 28 November 2013 Received in revised form 9 March 2014 Accepted 21 March 2014 Keywords: Agrochemicals Packaging waste Hazardous waste Triple rinsing Recycling Waste management a b s t r a c t Mismanagement of Agrochemicals Plastic Packaging Waste (APPW) constitutes a major environmental problem, resulting in the pollution of soil, air and water resources and compromising the agricultural products safety, the protection of the environment and the public health. Systems for the management of APPW have been established in some European countries and they are operational for several years now. However, these schemes are incompatible while their operational conditions and technical criteria could be improved. In many countries no schemes exist yet for the management of APPW with seri- ous negative consequences for the environment and public health. In response to these problems the European project AgroChePack has developed an environmental friendly, economically viable European APPW management scheme by transferring know-how from existing schemes, designing a new inte- grated APPW management scheme and testing it through pilot trials in five countries. This work presents the basic design principles established by AgroChePack by identifying problems and bottlenecks faced by existing schemes in Europe, by developing an integrated APPW scheme and by implementing, evaluating and optimising this scheme through pilot trials in Greece. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The term agrochemical, in most cases, refers to the broad range of pesticides, including insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides. However, it may also include synthetic fertilizers, hormones and other chemical growth agents, and concentrated stores of raw ani- mal manure. The group of agrochemicals that requires particular attention and on which the present paper focuses, is pesticides, as they can affect human health via their contamination of ground- waters, soils, food and even the air (European Commission, 2002). They not only may harm living target organisms, but often remain as residues in soil, water and food (Neumeister, 2003). Even though gaps in the current data on the issue make it difficult to be precise about the scale and trends of the problem in Europe (European Commission, 2002), there is evidence that the pesticide issue is serious and growing (European Communities, 2001). Specific pes- ticide use data combined with information about environmental conditions and toxicological, chemical and physical properties ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +30 210 5294011; fax: +30 210 5294023; mobile: +30 6947561933. E-mail address: briassou@aua.gr (D. Briassoulis). of the applied ingredients are essential to address the pesticide problem and quantify the management of the empty containers (Neumeister, 2003). According to Eurostat (Eurostat, 2008, 12), the total quantity of pesticides sold, expressed in active ingredient (a.i.), reported for 2005 for 20 countries was approximately 340,000 t. The cor- responding total quantity of pesticides sold in 2010 was 281,000 t (a.i.), while in 2008 and 2009 they were 330,814 and 291,406 t (a.i.), respectively, suggesting a clear tendency of reduction. According to ECPA (ECPA, 2013), the volume of products used in 2009 fell at a much faster rate than the decrease in sales value. The total decrease in volume in the European market was 12.8% – or nearly 43,000 t. The trend of reduction in 2009 is very much in line with the trend over the last few years. Fungicides and herbicides were the most sold pesticides in 2005. Fungicides remained the most sold pesticide when counted in active ingredients. In Germany, France, the Netherlands and Austria fungicides made up more than one third of the sales of pesticides (in tonnes of a.i.) in 2005, while in other countries this share ranged from 50% up to 60% and in some cases even more than 80%. In 2005 the sales of herbicides were highest in France with 29,000 t (a.i.) followed by Germany with 15,000 t (a.i,) (5% and 12% decrease in comparison to 2000, respectively). The share of insecticides in http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2014.03.013 0921-3449/© 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.